Ecology Flashcards
Energy Pyramid- A model that shows the available amount of energy in each trophic layer in an ecosystem.
Food Web- A model that shows many different feeding relationships among living things in a given area.
Decomposer- Organisms which carry out the process of decomposition by breaking down dead or decaying organisms.
Food chain- A model that shows one set of feeding relationships among living things.
Coniferous- Plants that produce reproductive organs called cones.
Consumer- An organism that eats other living things to get energy; an organism that does not produce it’s own food (related word: consume.)
Biome- A major ecological community such as grassland, tropical rainforests, or deserts.
Deciduous- (of a tree or shrub) shedding its leaves annually.
Ecology- The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Cycle- A process that repeats.
Nitrogen Cycle- A process in which nitrogen in the atmosphere enters the soil and becomes part of living organisms then eventually returns to the atmosphere.
Biotic Factors- All the living parts of an ecosystem.
Water Cycle- The continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air through predictable physical processes.
Abiotic Factor- All of the non living parts of an ecosystem.
Producer- An organism that makes its own food; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals.
Carbon Cycle- A natural cycle in which carbon compounds, mainly carbon dioxide, are incorporated into living tissue through photosynthesis and returned into the atmosphere by respiration, decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuel.
Predator- An animal that hunts and eats other animal.
Prey- An animal that is hunted and eaten by other animal.
