Ecology and Human Impact

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Across
  1. 7. an ecosystem's ability to absorb disturbances, like natural disasters or climate change, and recover to maintain its essential structure and functions, such as providing clean air, water, and food
  2. 8. the slow process where pioneer species like lichens and mosses colonize a new, barren habitat, such as bare rock or newly formed land, and gradually transform it into soil, paving the way for a more diverse and complex ecosystem to develop over hundreds or thousands of years
  3. 9. a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food
  4. 15. the doctrine that mutual dependence is necessary to social well-being
  5. 17. a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
  6. 18. a phenomenon where a quantity increases at a rate directly proportional to its current size
  7. 20. interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both
  8. 23. the regrowth of an established ecosystem after a disturbance, such as a wildfire or deforestation, where soil and some biological remnants (like seeds and roots) remain intact, allowing for faster recovery compared to primary succession which starts on bare rock
  9. 24. all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country
  10. 25. an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances
  11. 26. a person or thing that eats or uses something
Down
  1. 1. environmental influences, often abiotic (non-living) like natural disasters (storms, floods, earthquakes), extreme weather, and pollution, that limit the size of a population regardless of the population's density
  2. 2. a population where individuals are spaced out in a roughly equal, regular pattern across an area, typically due to territoriality or competition for a limited resource like water or light
  3. 3. a person, company, or country that makes, grows, or supplies goods or commodities for sale
  4. 4. exponential population growth in an idealized environment with unlimited resources, where the population size increases at an accelerating rate over time
  5. 5. the preying of one animal on others
  6. 6. the practice of living as a parasite in or on another organism
  7. 10. an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material
  8. 11. describes the logistic growth of a population in a resource-limited environment
  9. 12. the maximum population of a species that a particular environment can sustain indefinitely, based on available resources like food, water, and space
  10. 13. an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm
  11. 14. the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings
  12. 16. the interaction where two or more organisms vie for the same limited resources, such as food, water, light, or space, which negatively impacts the organisms involved
  13. 19. an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide
  14. 21. an organism's feeding position within a food chain or food web, indicating the flow of energy through an ecosystem
  15. 22. an animal that feeds on plants