Ecology
Food chain: Producer → Primary consumer → Secondary consumer → Tertiary consumer → Decomposer
Energy transfer: Only ~10% of energy passes from one trophic level to the next; ~90% is lost as heat.
Symbiosis: - Mutualism: Both benefit (bees + flowers) - Commensalism: One benefits, other unaffected (barnacles on whales) - Parasitism: One benefits, other harmed (tapeworm in host)
Keystone predator: A species whose removal causes dramatic ecosystem collapse — prey overpopulate, vegetation is decimated, cascading extinctions follow.
Biomes: Large geographic regions with characteristic climate: tropical rainforest, temperate forest, grassland, desert, tundra, taiga, aquatic.
Other concepts in General Science
- Cell Biology
- Cell Division
- Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
- Genetics and Heredity
- Osmosis and Diffusion
- Human Body Systems
- Taxonomy (Classification of Life)
- Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
- Chemical Bonding
- Acids, Bases, and pH
- States of Matter and Phase Changes
- Waves, Sound, and Light
- Earth and Space Science
- Newton's Laws of Motion