1. Populations and Communities
Chapter 8
Populations and Communities

2. The series of changes that occurs after a disturbance in an existing ecosystem is called
secondary succession

3. The largest population that an environment can support is called its
carrying capacity

4. An organism’s habitat must provide all of the following
food, water, & shelter

5. An organism’s particular role in its habitat is called its
niche

6. The nonliving parts of an ecosystem are called
abiotic factors

7. The place where an organism lives and that provides the things the organism needs is a
habitat

8. A hawk building a nest on a cactus is an example of
commensalism

9. If there are 40 ladybugs living in a garden measuring 5 square meters, the population of the ladybugs is
8 ladybugs per square meter

10. When a flea is living on a cat, the cat is the
Host
The smallest unit of ecological organization is a single
organism or species

11. The behaviors and physical characteristics of species that allow them to live successfully in their environment are called
adaptations

12. Population density is defined as
the number of individuals of a population in a specific area
Mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism are three types of
symbiotic relationships

13. All the different populations that live together in an area make up a
community
If an early winter caused crops to die this would be an example of a
limiting factor

14. A population is all the members of one species living in a particular
area
The study of how things interact with each other and with their environment is called
ecology

15. The first species to populate an area where primary succession is taking place are called
pioneer species
The struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources is called
competition

16. An example of a biotic factor in a prairie ecosystem would be
grass or prairie dogs
When a group of buffalo leave their herd for better land to graze this is
emigration

17. Examples of limiting factors are
weather, space, & food
To produce their own food, plants must use
sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide