A species is a group of animals that can breed with one-another to create fertile offspring. So two tigers can breed to make a fertile tiger, so is a species. A lion and a tiger can breed to make a liger, but this is not a breed, as this offspring is infertile.

A population is a community of animals in a particular place.

Biodiversity describes the variety of life on Earth or in a particular place. So, you can say that there is a great amount of biodiversity in a pond if there is a large variety of organisms in it.

Producers are organisms that make their own nutrients, whereas consumers gain their nutrients from other organisms.

Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, and omnivores eat both meat and plants.

Predators are animals that hunt and kill other animals for food, and prey are animals that are hunted and killed by predators.

An ecosystem contains all of the living organisms (community) living within a particular habitat and all of the non-living components with which the living organisms interact with

A habitat is a natural environment for an animal, plant or other organism.

Within ecosystems, plants, consumers, predators and prey all interact with one another.

A food chain can be made when one animal eats a plant, and that animal is eaten by another animal, which is eaten by another animal, and so on. The food chain is precious within ecosystems as if one of the food sources dies out or is taken away, the rest of the organisms further up in the food chain will lack food.

Food webs can also be created to describe more complex, multi-layered relationships within a food chain, where there are more factors involved rather than a direct line from bottom of the food chain to top of the food chain.

The niche is the specific role that an organism plays within a community.

The niche of an organism include what it requires from its environment, such as sunlight and nutrients, as well as how it interacts with other life within the community. The niche of an organism also includes the predation and competition it may experience with other organisms. The factors that an organism tolerates such as temperature and weather factors also fall under an organism’s niche.

Biotic factors are interactions that an organism has with other organisms.

Abiotic factors are the non-biological factors that an organism can tolerate, such as temperature, soil moisture, soil pH and light intensity.

Within ecosystems, there will commonly be competition between organisms for resources.

Competition within a certain species for resources, such as a monkey competing with a monkey for bananas, is called intraspecific competition.

Competition between difference species for resources, such as lions and cheetahs competing to eat gazelles, is called interspecific competition.

Intraspecific competition is more intense and competitive than interspecific competition, as animals within the same species compete for all of the same resources, whereas different species may only compete for a few resources, but not all.