Ecology Vocab.

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving environment.

Question 2

Producer

Answer 2

An organism that can make its own food.

Question 3

Consumer

Answer 3

An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms.

Question 4

Scavenger

Answer 4

A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead or decaying organisms.

Question 5

Decomposer

Answer 5

An organism that gets energy by breaking down biotic wastes and dead organisms, and returns raw materials to the soil and water.

Question 6

Food Chain

Answer 6

A series of events in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and by being eaten.

Question 7

Food Web

Answer 7

The pattern of overlapping feeding relationships or food chains among the various organisms in an ecosystem.

Question 8

Energy Pyramid

Answer 8

A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web

Question 9

Heterotroph

Answer 9

An organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things.

Question 10

Autotroph

Answer 10

An organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food.

Question 11

Tropic Level

Answer 11

A feeding level

Question 12

Biomass

Answer 12

The amount of living matter in an organism

Question 13

Nitrogen Fixation

Answer 13

The process of changing free nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds that plants can absorb and use.

Question 14

Abiotic

Answer 14

Characterized as non living

Question 15

Biotic

Answer 15

Characterized as living

Question 16

Primary Succession

Answer 16

The series of changes that occur in an area where no soil or organisms exist.

Question 17

Secondary Succession

Answer 17

The series of changes that occur in an area where the ecosystem has been disturbed, but where soil and organisms still exist.

Question 18

Pioneer Species

Answer 18

One of the first plants in an ecosystem

Question 19

Weathering

Answer 19

The chemical and physical processes that break down rock and other substances.

Question 20

Erosion

Answer 20

The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered particles of rock and soil.

Question 21

Deposition

Answer 21

Process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.