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| describes the predator-prey relationship in terms of the effects on the size of both populations |
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| an animal consumed for food by a predator |
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| an organism (consumer) that eats plants (producers) |
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| an organism that makes its own food, usually using energy from the Sun in a process called photosynthesis; also called an autotroph |
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an ecological pyramid that represents a snapshot of the total mass of the living things at each trophic level in a community; for most communities, the pyramid of biomass has the standard pyramid shape
pyramid of energy an ecological pyramid that represents how much energy is available in each trophic level; the size of each level represents the amount of energy present in that trophic level |
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| an ecological pyramid that represents the actual number of organisms present in each trophic level; the shape of a pyramid of numbers varies widely depending on the physical size of the producers |
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| a specialized form of interaction between two different species; often, each species develops very specialized behaviours, life cycles, or structures; includes mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism |
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| a category of living things that describes the position of an organism in relation to the order of nutrient and energy transfers in an ecosystem; the first trophic level contains autotrophs and each higher level contains heterotrophs |
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| a type of microscopic plankton that can be found in oceans, seas, and freshwater bodies; feed on phytoplankton |
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