Biology Vocabulary:

1. Immigration: influx of individuals into an area 2. Emigration: movement of individuals out an area. 3. Logistic growth: (shown with an S-shaped curve) population growth that levels off at carrying capacity. 4. Exponential growth: (shown as J-shaped curve) geometric increase of a population as it grows into an ideal unlimited environment. 5. Niche: the sum total of a species use of the abiotic and biotic resources in its environment 6. Symbiosis: an ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct contact 7. Commensalism: A symbiotic relationship in which the symboint benefits but the host is neither helped nor harmed. 8. Mutualism: a symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefits 9. Paratism: A symbiotic relationship in which the symboint benefits at the expense of the host by living either within the host as an ectoparasite. 10. Predation: interaction between species in which one species, the predator eats the other, the prey 11. Co evolution: the mutual evolutionary influence between two different species interacting with each other and reciprocally influencing each other adaptations. 12. Mimicry: the similarity of one species to another which protects one or both 13. Camouflage: an animal natural coloring or form that enables it to bond in with its surroundings 14. Pioneer species: species which colonize previously uncolonized land usually leading to ecological succession. They are the first organisms to start the chain of events leading to a live able biosphere or ecosystem. 15. Climax Community: a biological community of plants and animals which through the process of ecological succession the development of vegetation in an area over time has reached a steady state. 16. Succession: the series of changes in an ecological community that occur over time after a disturbance. 17. Primary Succession: a type of ecological that occurs in a virtually lifeless area where there were originally no organisms and where soil has not yet formed. 18. Secondary Succession: a type of succession that occurs where an existing community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil intact. 19. Food web: the elaborate interconnected feeding relationship in an ecosystem. 20. Biological magnification: a tropic process in which retained substances become more concentrated with each link in the food web. 21. Biomass pyramid: shows the relationship between mass and tropic level by qualifying the amount of living mass present of each tropic level of an ecological community at a particular moment in time.

22. Energy pyramid: the graphical representation of the tropic levels by which the incoming solar energy is transferred into an ecosystem 23. Hydrologic cycle: the continuous movement of water on above and below the surface of earth. 24. Keystone species: a species that is not necessarily abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche. 25. Exotic species: a species living outside its nature distributional range which has arrived there by human activity deliberate or accidental 26. Endangered species: a species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. 27. Hot Spots: a relatively small area with a exceptional concentration of endemic species and a large number of endangered and threatened species. 28. Ecosystem: all the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact a community and its physical environment 29. Tropic level: The position that an organism occupies in a food chain. 30. Food chain: the pathway along which food is transferred from tropic level to tropic level beginning with producers. 31. Producers: an organism that makes its own energy using the sun or chemicals. An autotroph. 32. Consumer: a heterotrophic organism that obtains its energy by eating other organisms in a food chain. A heterotrophy. 33. Detritivore: a consumer that derives its energy from nonliving organic material or decomposer. 34. Decomposer: any of the apostrophic fungi and bacteria that absorbs nutrients from non living or organic material. A Detritivore. 35. Scavenger: an animal that feeds on recently dead organisms especially a carnivorous animal that eats dead animals rather than or in addition to hunting live prey. 36. Heterotroph: an organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by products. A consumer. 37. Autotroph: an organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. A producer. 38. Herbivore: a heterotrophic animal that only eats plants. 39. Carnivore: an animal such as a shark, hawk, or spider that eats other Heterotroph 40. Omnivore: a heterotrophic animal that consumes both meat and plant material. 41. Salinization: build up of salts in soil eventually to toxic levels for plants 42. Desalinization: refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from water. 43. Greenhouse effect: the warming of the planet earth due to the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide which absorbs infrared radiations and slows its escape from the irritated earth. 44. Global warming: an increase in the average temperature worldwide, believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect. 45. Nitrogen fixation: the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by certain prokaryotes into nitrogenous compounds that can be directly absorbed by plants.