click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Ecology Chapter 2
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Producer | An organism that can make its own food. |
Consumer | An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms. |
Herbivore | A consumer that obtains energy by eating only plants. |
Carnivore | A consumer that obtains energy by eating other animals. |
Omnivore | A consumer that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals. |
Scavenger | A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead or decaying organisms. |
Decomposer | An organism that gets energy by breaking down wastes and dead organisms, and return raw materials to the soil and water. |
Food Chain | A series of events in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and by being eaten. |
Food Web | The pattern of overlaping |
Energy Pyramid | A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web. |
Biome | A group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms. |
Climate | The average annual conditions of temperature, precipitation, winds, and clouds in an area. |
Desert | A dry region that on average receives less than 25 centimeters of precipitation per year. |
Rain Forest | A forest that receives at least 2 meters of rain per year, mostly occurring in the tropical wet climate zone. |
Emergent Layer | The tallest layer of the rain forest that receives the most sunlight. |
Canopy | |
Understory | A layer of shorter trees and vines that grows in the shade of a forest canopy. |
Grassland | An area populated mostly by grasses and other nonwoody plants that gets 25 to 75 centimeters of rain each year. |
Savanna | A grassland located close to the equator that may include shrubs and small trees and receives as much as 120 centimeters of rain per day. |
Deciduos Tree | A tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season and grows new ones each year. |
Boreal Forest | Dense forest of evergreens located in the upper regions of the Northern Hemisphere. |
Coniferous Tree | A tree that produces its seeds in cones and that has needle-shaped leaves coated in a waxy substance to reduce water loss. |
Tundra | An extremely cold, dry biome climate region characterized by short, col summers and bitterly cold winters. |
Permafrost | Permanently frozen soil found in the tundra biome climate region. |
Biogeography | The study of where organisms live and how they got there. |
Exotic Species | Species that are carried to a new location by people. |
Dispersal | The movement or organisms from one place to another. |
Continental Drift | The hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth's surface. |
Evaporation | The process by which molecules at the surface of a liquid absorb enough energy to change to a gas. |
Condensation | The change in state from a gas to a liquid. |
Precipitation | Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. |
Nitrogen Fixation | The process of changing free nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds that plants can absorb and use. |
Estuary | |
Intertidal Zone | |
Neritic Zone |