Nonliving aspects of the environment, include: sunlight, soil, temperature, and water

Break down the remains and other wastes and release simple inorganic molecules back to the environment

Consume both plants and animals

Study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment

Consume detritus (dead leaves, animal feces, and other organic debris that collect on soil or at the bottom of a body of water)

Physical environment in which a species lives and to which it is adapted

Total mass of organisms at a trophic level

Living aspects of the environment, example: organisms

Multiple pathways through which energy and matter flow through an ecosystem

Role of a species in its ecosystem, includes how the species interacts with biotic/abiotic factors of the environment

Consume animals, unable to digest plants

Consume the soft tissues of dead animals (examples: racoons, vultures, blowflies)

Feeding positions in a food chain or web

Consume producers such as plants or algae

Numbers and types of species that living in communities generally change through time

Occurs in areas that have never been colonized, nothing but bare rock

Parasites live on the outside or inside of these species, typically harmed in some way in a parasitism relationship

A symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is harmed

First species to colonize a disturbed area, they pave the way for other species to come to the area

Symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is not affected

Succession ends with a final stable stage, scientists believe this stage no longer exists because communities are constantly changing

Occurs in formerly inhabited area that was disturbed, soil is already in place

Symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit

A species that harms another species (host), can live inside or outside the host

Limits the growth or development of an organism, population, or process

Average number of individuals in a population per unit of area or volume

Largest population size that can be supported in an area without harming the environment