Chapter 2 Vocabulary

Pertaining to factors or things that are separate and independent from living things; nonliving

The sum total of all living organisms; usually applied to the setting of natural ecosystems

All organisms (plant, animal, or microbe) of a single kind; the “single kind” is determined by similarity of appearance or by the fact that members do or can mate and produce fertile offspring; physical, chemical, or behavioral differences block breeding between species

A group within a single species whose individuals can and do freely interbreed

A grouping of plants, animals, and other organisms interacting with each other and with their environment in such a way as to perpetuate the grouping more or less indefinitely; have characteristic forms, such as deserts, grasslands, tundra, deciduous forsts, and topical rain forests

The study of any and all aspects of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment

A transitional region between two adjacent ecosystems that contains some of the species and characteristics of each one and also certain species of its own

A group of ecosystems that are related by having a similar type of vegetation governed by similar climatic conditions; excluding parries, deciduous forests, arctic tundra, deserts, and tropical rain forests

The overall ecosystem of Earth; the sum total of all the biomes and smaller ecosystems, which ultimately are all interconnected and interdependent through global processes such as the water cycle and the atmospheric cycle

The major feeding relationships between organisms within ecosystems, organized into trophic levels

The chemical process carried on by green plants through which light energy is used to produced glucose from carbon dioxide and water; oxygen is released as a byproduct

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All things such as air, water, minerals, and metals, that are neither living organisms nor products uniquely produced by living things

Any organism that can synthesize all its organic substances from inorganic nutrients, using light or certain inorganic chemicals as a source of energy; green plants

Any organism that consumes organic matter as a source of energy

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Organisms such as termites, fungi, and bacteria that obtain their nutrients and energy mainly by feeding on dead organic matter

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