Ecosystem Vocabulary

Question 1

A model that show the available amount of energy in each trophic layer in an ecosystem

Answer 1

Energy Pyramid

Question 2

A model that shows many different feeding relations among living things

Answer 2

Food Web

Question 3

Organisms that carry out the process of decomposition by breaking down dead or decaying organisms

Answer 3

Decomposer

Question 4

A model that shows one set of feeding relationships among living things

Answer 4

Food Chain

Question 5

A type of plant with needle-like leaves that uses cones to reproduce

Answer 5

Coniferous

Question 6

An organism that eats other living things to get energy; an organism that doesn’t produce its own food ; an organism that does not produce its own food (related word: consume)

Answer 6

Consumer

Question 7

A major ecological community such as a grassland, tropical rainforest, or a desert

Answer 7

Biome

Question 8

A forest containing trees that lose their leaves each year

Answer 8

Deciduous

Question 9

The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings

Answer 9

Ecology

Question 10

A process that repeats

Answer 10

Cycle

Question 11

A process in which nitrogen in the atmosphere enters the soil and becomes part of a living organism then eventually returns to the atmosphere

Answer 11

Nitrogen Cycle

Question 12

All of the living parts of an ecosystem

Answer 12

Biotic Factors

Question 13

The continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and air

Answer 13

Water Cycle

Question 14

All of the non living parts of an ecosystem

Answer 14

Abiotic Factors

Question 15

An organism that makes its own food ; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals

Answer 15

Producer

Question 16

A natural cycle in which carbon compounds, mainly carbon dioxide, are incorporated into living tissue through photosynthesis and returned to the atmosphere by respiration, decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels

Answer 16

Carbon Cycle

Question 17

An animal that hunts and eats another animal

Answer 17

Predator

Question 18

An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal

Answer 18

Prey

Question 19

The progressive replacement of one community by another until a climax community is established.

Answer 19

Succession

Question 20

Maximum number that the population can be and still be healthy

Answer 20

Carrying Capacity

Question 21

Control population growth( food or lack of, illness, shelter, space, etc.

Answer 21

Limiting Factors

Question 22

Relationship between two different species

Answer 22

Symbiosis

Question 23

Both benefit

Answer 23

Mutualism

Question 24

One benefits, other unharmed

Answer 24

Commensalism

Question 25

One benefits, other is harmed

Answer 25

Parisitism