Chapter 2 Vocabulary

Question 1

Habitat

Answer 1

Area where an organism lives

Question 2

Abiotic Factors

Answer 2

The non living factors in an organism’s environment

Question 3

Biosphere

Answer 3

Portion of Earth that supports life

Question 4

Matter

Answer 4

Anything that takes up space and has mass

Question 5

Biotic Factors

Answer 5

The living factors in an organism’s environment

Question 6

Ecology

Answer 6

Scientific discipline in which the relationships among living organisms and the interaction the organisms have with their environments are studied

Question 7

Symbiosis

Answer 7

The close relationship that exists when two or more species live together

Question 8

Predation

Answer 8

The act of one organism pursuing and consuming another organism for food

Question 9

Niche

Answer 9

Role or position that an organism has in it’s environment

Question 10

Ecosystem

Answer 10

Biological community and all the abiotic factors that affect it

Question 11

Biological Community

Answer 11

Group of interacting populations that occupy the same geographic area at the same time

Question 12

Biome

Answer 12

Large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities

Question 13

Parasitism

Answer 13

Symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of another organism

Question 14

Population

Answer 14

Individual organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location at the same time

Question 15

Food Chain

Answer 15

Simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem

Question 16

Biogeochemical Cycle

Answer 16

The exchange of matter through the biosphere

Question 17

Biomass

Answer 17

The total mass of living matter at each tropic level

Question 18

Heterotroph

Answer 18

An organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms

Question 19

Nutrient

Answer 19

Chemical substance that an organism must obtain from its environment to sustain life and undergo life processes

Question 20

Mutualism

Answer 20

Relationships where organisms live closely together and benefit from each other

Question 21

Autotroph

Answer 21

An organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food

Question 22

Herbivore

Answer 22

A heterotroph that only eats plants

Question 23

Carnivore

Answer 23

A heterotroph that preys in other heterotrophs

Question 24

Omnivore

Answer 24

Organisms that eat both plants and animals

Question 25

Detrivores

Answer 25

Organisms that eat fragments of dead matter in an ecosystem, and return nutrients to soil, air, and water so it can be reused by organisms

Question 26

Tropic Level

Answer 26

Each step in a food chain or food web

Question 27

Food Web

Answer 27

Model representing the many interconnected food chains and path ways in which energy flows through a group of organisms

Question 28

Nitrogen Fixation

Answer 28

The process of capture and conversion of nitrogen into a form that is usable by plants

Question 29

Denitrification

Answer 29

Process in which some soil bacteria convert fixed nitrogen compounds back into nitrogen gas, which returns it to the atmosphere

Question 30

Commensalism

Answer 30

Relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped