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| The study of how organisms interact with their environment. |
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| All the organisms that are part of an ecosystem. |
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| Geographic range of an ecological factor. |
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| The evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community. |
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| The branch of ecology concerned with the morphological, physiological, and behavioral ways in which individual organisms meet the challenges posed by their biotic and abiotic environments. May be divided into behavioral ecology, physiological ecology, and evolutionary ecology. |
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| A localized group of individuals that belong to the same biological species (that are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring). |
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| The study of populations in relation to the environment, including environmental influences on population density and distribution, age structure, and variations in population size. |
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| All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction. |
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| The study of how interactions between species affect community structure and organization. |
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| All the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; a community and its physical environment. |
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| The study of energy flow and the cycling of chemicals among the various biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. |
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| The study of past, present, and future patterns of landscape use, as well as ecosystem management and the biodiversity of interacting ecosystems. Focuses on the factors controlling exchanges of energy, materials, and organisms among the ecosystem patches making up a landscape or seascape. |
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| Localized variation in environmental conditions within an ecosystem, arranged spatially into a complex of discrete areas that may be characterized by distinctive groups of species or ecosystem processes. |
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| The entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet′s ecosystems. |
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| A guiding principle in making decisions about the environment, cautioning to consider carefully the potential consequences of actions: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” |
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| The distribution of individuals within geographic population boundaries. |
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| Anything that affects a living organism that is itself alive. Ex) predation and herbivory; the presence or absence of food resources; parasites; diseases; and competing organisms. |
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| Non-living physical and chemical factors which affect the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce. Ex)temperature; sunlight; water; wind; pollutants; pH; rocks and soil. |
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| The prevailing weather conditions in a particular area; affected by temperature, wind, water and sunlight. |
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| Climate patterns on the global, regional and local level. |
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| Very fine climate patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms underneath a fallen log. |
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| The semi-annual mixing of waters as a result of changing water–temperature profiles in a lake. |
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| Major types of ecological associations that occupy broad geographic regions of land or water. |
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| The narrow top slice of oceans or lakes, where light permeates sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur. |
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| The part of oceans and lakes beneath the photic zone, where light does not penetrate sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur. |
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| The bottomof aquatic biomes which is occupied by communities of organisms called benthos. |
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| The communities of organisms living in the benthic zone of an aquatic biome. |
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| A narrow stratum of rapid temperature change in the ocean and in many temperate–zone lakes that separates the more uniformly warm upper layer from more uniformly cold deeper waters. |
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| A plot of the temperature and precipitation in a particular region. |
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| The uppermost layer of vegetation in a terrestrial biome. |
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| The transition from one type of habitat or ecosystem to another, such as the transition from a forest to a grassland. |
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