Terms used in Ecology

Diné bizaad: Tábąąh ayání. Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ecology is the study of inter-relations between an organism /group of organisms and their environment.

Terms used in ecology

1. Biosphere: Is the part of the earth and the atmosphere where life can exist. This ranges from deep water bodies, land and few meters in the atmosphere.
2. Species: Is a group of organism that can interbreed to give rise to viable off springs.
3. Population: A group of organisms of the same species occupying the same area at a given time eg a population of elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park
4. Habitat: Is a place where an organism lives e.g. land habitat is known as terrestrial and water habitat is called aquatic.
5. Ecosystem: is the basic functional unit capable of sustaining its self and consisting of plants and animals interacting with each other and non living environment e.g. f. population of hippos in kazinga channel in queen Elizabeth national park Uganda etc. examples of ecosystem include Grassland ecosystem, forest ecosystem. An ecosystem must have producers, consumers and decomposer.
6. Community: Is a collection of population of different organism occupying the same area or a group of different species of organism in the same area.
7. Ecology niche: This is a form used in relation to a particular organism. It refers to the role/profession of an organism in a given habitat e.g. the niche of spirogyra in a pond is to photosynthesis /to produce food.
8. Biome: These are very large ecological divisions found all over the world they have characteristic plant and animal communities e.g. equatorial rainforests biome, Amazon, Savannah woodland and grasslands, temperate forests etc.
9. Environment:      Surrounding of an organism.