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
Biome
A major ecological community such as grassland, rainforest, or desert
Deciduous
A forest containing trees that lose there leaves each year
Ecology
All the living and non living parts in an area that interact with each other
Cycle
The movement of a substance through different reservoirs or stages
Nitrogen cycle
A posses in which nitrogen in the atmosphere enter the soil and becomes parts of living organisms then eventually return to the atmosphere
Biotic factors
All of the living parts of an ecosystem
Water cycle
The continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air through predictable physical posses.
Abiotic factor
All the non-living parts of an ecosystem
Producer
An organism that makes its own food
Carbon cycle
A natural cycle in which carbon compounds, mainly carbon dioxide, are incorporated into living tissue though photosynthesis and returned to the atmosphere respiration decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels
Predator
An animal that hurts and eats other animals
Prey
An animal that is hunted and eaten by other animals
Succession
The sequence of communities that develop in an area
Dependent variable
A variable whose value depends on that of another
Independent variable
A variable whose variation doesn’t depend on that or another
Constant variable
A variable that can be measured
Hypothesis
A guess that supports your experiment
