Ecosystems Flashcards
Organism
A living thing
Habitat
An environment that provides the things a specific organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce
Biotic factor
A living or once living part of an organism’s habitat
Abiotic factor
A non living part of an organism’s habitat
Population
All the members of one species living in the same area
Community
All the different populations that live together in a certain area
Ecosystem
The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their non living environment
Limiting factor
An environmental factor that causes a population to decrease in size
Resources
Objects used for food, energy, or to make things
Density
The number of individuals in an area of a specific size
Producer
An organism that can make its own food
Consumer
An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms
Decomposer
An organism that gets energy by breaking down biotic wastes and dead organisms and returns raw materials to the soil and water
Food chain
A series of events in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and by being eaten
Food web
The pattern of overlapping feeding relationships or food chains among the various organisms in an ecosystem
Energy pyramid
A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web
Role
The part that organism plays
Evaporation
The process by which molecules at the surface of a liquid absorb enough energy to change to a gas
Law of conservation of mass
The principle that the total amount of matter is neither created nor destroyed during any chemical or physical change
Law of conservation of energy
the rule that energy cannot be created or destroyed
Condensation
the change in the state from a gas to a liquid
Precipitation
any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches earths surface as rain, snow, sleet, or hail
System
A group of objects or procedures that carry out a task
Components
Parts of a system
