Ecosystem Vocabulary

Ecology- study of the relationships between living things and their environments.

Organism- a living thing

Ex: You are an organism

Ecosystem- group of several communities interacting with each other AND the non-living parts of their environment.

Can be big like a desert or small like a fish tank. It involves both the living and nonliving parts of the area.

Community- all the populations that live in a certain place and can interact with each other.

Ex. frogs, goldfish, mosquitoes, dragonflies and plants at Fuller Pond.

Population- group of the same kind of organisms in a certain place and can interact with each other.

Ex: a herd of elephant

Habitat- place where an organism lives.

Vertebrate- organisms with backbones

Ex: snakes, squirrels, frogs

Invertebrate-organisms without backbones

Ex: worms, snails, grasshopper

Biotic- alive

Abiotic- not alive.

Abiotic things in an ecosystem could be temperature, amount of oxygen, amount of sunlight, or types of rocks.

Biodiversity- Variety of living things in an area.