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| the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment studied as an anatomical structure resembling a pyramid |
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| plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel |
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| the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit |
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| requiring complex organic compounds of nitrogen and carbon (as that obtained from plant or animal matter) for metabolic synthesis |
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| requiring only carbon dioxide or carbonates as a source of carbon and a simple inorganic nitrogen compound for metabolic synthesis of organic molecules (as glucose) |
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| an autotrophic organism (as a green plant) viewed as a source of biomass that can be consumed by other organisms |
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| an organism requiring complex organic compounds for food which it obtains by preying on other organisms or by eating particles of organic matter |
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| a continuous series of natural processes by which nitrogen passes successively from air to soil to organisms and back to air or soil involving principally nitrogen fixation, nitrification, decay, and denitrification |
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| Group of microscopic, single-celled organisms that inhabit virtually all environments, including soil, water, organic matter, and the bodies of multicellular animals. Bacteria are distinguished in part by their morphological and genetic features that the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into a combined form (as ammonia) through chemical and especially biological action (as that of soil rhizobia) |
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| to separate into constituent parts or elements or into simpler compounds |
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| the cycle of carbon in the earth's ecosystems in which carbon dioxide is fixed by photosynthetic organisms to form organic nutrients and is ultimately restored to the inorganic state |
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| warming of the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet (as Earth or Venus) that is caused by conversion of solar radiation into heat in a process involving selective transmission of short wave solar radiation by the atmosphere, its absorption by the planet's surface, and reradiation as infrared which is absorbed and partly reradiated back to the surface by atmospheric gases |
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| formation of carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and a source of hydrogen (as water) in the chlorophyll-containing cells (as of green plants) exposed to light |
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| the physical and chemical processes by which an organism supplies its cells and tissues with the oxygen needed for metabolism and relieves them of the carbon dioxide formed in energy-producing reactions |
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| of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged |
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| the sum of the processes by which an animal or plant takes in and utilizes food substances requiring only carbon dioxide or carbonates as a source of carbon and a simple inorganic nitrogen compound for metabolic synthesis of organic molecules (as glucose) |
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| the sum of the processes by which an animal or plant takes in and utilizes food substances requiring complex organic compounds of nitrogen and carbon (as that obtained from plant or animal matter) for metabolic synthesis |
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| to take in for or as if for digestion |
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| interception of radiant energy or sound waves |
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| any of various organisms (as many bacteria and fungi) that return constituents of organic substances to ecological cycles by feeding on and breaking down dead protoplasm |
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| any of a kingdom (Fungi) of saprophytic and parasitic spore-producing eukaryotic typically filamentous organisms formerly classified as plants that lack chlorophyll and include molds, rusts, mildews, smuts, mushrooms, and yeasts |
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| of or relating to a channel for the conveyance of a body fluid (as blood of an animal or sap of a plant) or to a system of such channels |
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| lacking the usual especially positive characteristics of the thing specified |
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| one that preys, destroys, or devours |
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| one that is helpless or unable to resist attack |
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| active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some environmental resource in short supply |
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| an organism living in, with, or on another organism |
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| a living animal or plant on or in which a parasite lives |
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| a living animal or plant on or in which a parasite lives |
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| the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms |
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| mutually beneficial association between different kinds of organisms |
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| a relation between two kinds of organisms in which one obtains food or other benefits from the other without damaging or benefiting i |
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| one in which a parasite obtains benefits from a host which it usually injures |
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| caused or produced by living beings or caused by living organisms |
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| not of, relating to, or caused by living organisms |
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| the mass of a substance per unit volume of the organisms inhabiting a particular locality |
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| limiting factors (density-dependent & density-independent) |
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| being an environmental factor (as a nutrient) that limits the population size of an organism, one that actively contributes to the production of a result |
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| the ability to hold, receive, store, or accommodate to harbor (a pathogen) within the body |
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| marked by continuous usually productive activity or change - a state of balance between opposing forces or actions that is either static (as in a body acted on by forces whose resultant is zero) or dynamic (as in a reversible chemical reaction when the velocities in both directions are equal) |
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| Place where an organism or a community of organisms lives, including all living and nonliving factors or conditions of the surrounding environment. A host organism inhabited by parasites is as much a habitat as a place on land such as a grove of trees or an aquatic locality such as a small pond. “Microhabitat” refers to the conditions and organisms in the immediate vicinity of a plant or animal |
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| the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption |
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| not living or growing naturally in a particular region |
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| an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution |
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| the action or process of clearing of forests |
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| the accumulation of a substance (as a pesticide) in a living organism |
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| of or relating to biology or to life and living processes the apparent enlargement of an object by an optical instrument that is the ratio of the dimensions of an image formed by the instrument to the corresponding dimensions of the objec |
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| lacking the usual especially positive characteristics of the thing specified, capable of being broken down especially into innocuous products by the action of living things (as microorganisms) |
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