click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Science
Vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Biotic Factors | a living thing. as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem |
Abiotic Factors | a nonliving thing, such as climate or habitat, that influences or affects and ecosystem and the organisms in it |
Producers | an organism, as a plant, that is able to produce its own food from inorganic substances |
Consumers | an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on other plants or animals |
Decomposers | an organism, usually a bacterium or fungus, that breaks down the cells of plants and animals into simpler substances |
Herbivore | animals that get their energy by only eating plants or producers |
Carnivore | animals that get their energy by only eating other animals |
Omnivore | animals that get their energy by eating both consumers and producers |
Predator | any organism that exists by preying on other organisms |
Prey | an animal hunted or seized for food, especially by a carnivorous animal. |
Terrestrial Ecosystem | a land-based community of organisms |
Aquatic Ecosystem | an ecosystem in a body of water |
Food Chains | a path of food energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem |
Food Webs | overlapping food chains that with different pathways for the flow of food energy in an ecosystem |
Energy Pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy passed on at each level of a food chain |
Competition | the struggle of organisms against each other to get the same resource |
Natural Resources | Materials n the enviornment that are useful to people |
Population | all the organisms of the same species that live in the same place at the same time |
Community | populations of different kinds of organisms that live in the same place at the same time |
Habitat | the environment where an organism lives |
Estuary | a place where fresh water from a river empties into the ocean and mixes with it |
Brackish | slightly salty, as is the mixture of river water and seawater in estuaries |