Ecology Test tomorrow. Below are some of the things you need to know for the test. Use your review sheet that we completed in class on Friday.

Ecology is the study of how organisms interat with living and nonliving things.

Abiotic factors- non-living parts of the environment (rocks, air, ph, sunlight)

Niche is a species’ role in it’s environment (it’s JOB and what it EATS)

Population- all the organisms of a species that live in the same area.

Community - all the different populations in an area.

Biosphere - all of earth's ecosystemsCompetition - is the struggle for resources among organisms.

Limiting Factors are the living and non living things in the environment that limit the size

Carrying Capacity is the maximum population that an ecosystem can support

Predators kill and eat other organisms called Prey.

Autotrophs - (producers) make their own food by photosynthesis

Heterotrophs - must eat something for food (consumers)

Herbivores - can only eat plantsCarnivores - can only eat animals

Omnivores - can eat plants & animals (all humans!!!!)

Consumers - same as heterotrophs

Decomposers - break organisms down and return nutrients to the soil.

Scavengers - eat dead organisms that they did not kill themselves example: vultures

Parasites - live off of another organism (host) and do not kill them usually

of populations.