Ch.5 key terms

Question 1

Photosynthesis

Answer 1

the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.

Question 2

Producer

Answer 2

an organism, as a plant, that is able to produce its own food from inorganic substances.

Question 3

consumer

Answer 3

a social discipline that focuses on the interaction between people and the environment.

Question 4

Decomposer

Answer 4

are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, they carry out decomposition, a process possible by only certain kingdoms, such as fungi.

Question 5

Cellular Respiration

Answer 5

a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert chemical energy from oxygen molecules or nutrients.

Question 6

Food Chain

Answer 6

a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Question 7

Food Web

Answer 7

the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community

Question 8

Trophic Level

Answer 8

the level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web.

Question 9

Carbon cycle

Answer 9

the cycle of thermonuclear reactions believed to occur in stars, in which carbon nuclei are repeatedly formed and broken down in the conversion of hydrogen into helium.

Question 10

Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria

Answer 10

a process by which molecular nitrogen in the air is converted into ammonia or related nitrogenous compounds in soil

Question 11

Nitrogen Cycle

Answer 11

the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.

Question 12

Phosphorus Cycle

Answer 12

The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

Question 13

Ecological Succession

Answer 13

the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Question 14

Primary Succesion

Answer 14

is one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms.

Question 15

Secondary succession

Answer 15

one of the two types ecological succession of a plants life.

Question 16

Pioneer species

Answer 16

The first species to colonize an ecosystem that is previously damaged or disrupted.

Question 17

Climax Community

Answer 17

is a historic term for a boreal forest community of plants, animals.