Unit 8: Ecology

1234567891011121314151617181920
Across
  1. 1. The interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem
  2. 4. A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits but the other is neither helped nor harmed
  3. 5. Species having a disproportionate effect on the ecosystem
  4. 8. A carnivore that eats herbivores
  5. 9. A species with substantially higher abundance or biomass than other species in a community. Dominant species exert a powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species
  6. 13. A symbiotic relationship in which one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of another, the host, by living either within or on the host
  7. 14. A carnivore that eats other carnivores
  8. 15. The pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with producers.
  9. 16. All the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; one or more communities and the physical environment around them.
  10. 18. An organism that absorbs nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms and converts them to inorganic forms; a detritivore
  11. 19. population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity
  12. 20. Nonliving; referring to the physical and chemical properties of an environment
Down
  1. 2. Pertaining to the living factors—the organisms—in an environment
  2. 3. A physical law stating that matter can change form but cannot be created or destroyed. In a closed system, the mass of the system is constant
  3. 6. The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, symbolized as K
  4. 7. A symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit.
  5. 10. An autotroph, usually a photosynthetic organism. Collectively, autotrophs make up the trophic level of an ecosystem that ultimately supports all other levels
  6. 11. growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, represented by a J-shaped curve when population size is plotted over time
  7. 12. An herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs
  8. 17. An ecological relationship between organisms of two different species that live together in direct and intimate contact