B12 - Organisms and their environment Flashcards
What is the principal source of energy input to biological systems?
The sun.
What is a food chain?
A chain showing the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, beginning with a producer.
What is a food web?
A network of interconnected food chains.
What is a producer?
An organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.
What is a consumer?
An organism that gets its energy by feeding on other organisms.
What is a herbivore?
An animal that gets its energy by eating plants.
What is a carnivore?
An animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.
What is a decomposer?
An organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic matter.
What is an ecosystem?
A unit containing all of the organisms and their environment, interacting together, in a given area.
What is a trophic level?
The position of an organism in a food chain or food web.
Name two decomposers.
Fungi and bacteria.
How do decomposers benefit the ecosystem?
The recycle minerals for plant growth and remove dead bodies/waste from the habitat.
