Abiotic Factors: The physical factors influencing the organisms, e.g.

temperature, light
intensity, salinity, water availability.

Biosphere: The region of the Earth that is hospitable to life.

Biotic Factors: The living organisms within a habitat and their interactions which effect
distributions etc. e.g. predation, disease, parasites and human influence.

Carrying Capacity: The number of a species in a population where there is no longer any
growth. As a population nears the carrying capacity, the environmental resistance increases.

Community: A naturally occurring group of interacting plants and animals in a defined area
or habitat. NB communities are named after one of their dominant species or major physical
characteristics e.g. pine community or freshwater pond community.

Consumers: An organism that consumes another organism as food as a mean of energy.

Decomposers: Decomposers are organisms that breakdown organic material, and form an
important part of food chains. The material that they break down can then be used by the
primary producers of an ecosystem which once again passes through the food chain.

Detritivores: Detritus provides food for many organisms known as detritivores.

Detritus: A part of the NPP id contained in dead leaves and flowers which collect on the
ground and form a litter known as detritus.

Ecological Niche: The place of each species within an ecosystem. This is not only the
space that it occupies, but the role it carries out within the community and its
interrelationships with other species. It is their ability to out compete other species within
their niche that allows them to survive.

Ecosystem: A community of organisms which together with their physical environment, to
form a self perpetuating ecological unit, e.g freshwater pond, beech woodland etc.

Environmental Resistance: The environmental factors reducing the growth of a population.

Food Chain: The sequence from plant (producer) to herbivore to primary and secondary
carnivores. As most herbivores (primary consumers) and carnivores (secondary and tertiary
consumers) usually feed on more than one species, simple food chains rarely exist.

Food Web: Interconnecting food chains giving a more realistic picture of feeding
relationships within an ecosystem.

Gross primary production (GPP): The total fixation of energy by photosynthesis .

Habitat: The place where an organism lives in an ecosystem e.g. freshwater habitats
include streams and ponds

Microhabitats: Areas of varying characteristics within a habitat e.g. in a stream there will be
several microhabitats depending on oxygen content or speed of water flow.

Net primary production (NPP): The difference between GPP and R, this represents the
actual rate of production of new biomass. NPP=GPP-R, Plant respiration (R). Some of the
GPP is used for respiration and will ultimately be lost by heat energy. This is the rate at
which organic compounds are used in this way.

Population: A group of organisms of a single species found in the same habitat e.g. a
population of bluebells in a woodland.

Primary productivity: Is the rate at which biomass is produced per unit area of green plants.

Producers: Any autotrophic organism capable of creating organic materials which can be
used by other members of the environment by feeding on the producer.

Productivity: The NPP values from one ecosystem can be compared to another to establish
how productive each of the ecosystems actually is.

Pyramid of Biomass: This represents the total biomass at each trophic level.

Pyramid of Energy: Represents the total energy content of each successive trophic level.
There are large losses of energy between trophic levels in any ecosystem.

Pyramid of Numbers: A pyramid that shows the number of organisms at each trophic level.

Trophic Level: One stage in a food chain, e.g. autotrophs is the first trophic level.