Ecosystems 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.
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 its own food.
Biome
A major ecological community such as grassland, tropical rain forest, or desert.
Deciduous Forest
A forest containing trees that lose their leaves each year.
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
all of the living parts of an ecosystem.
Water Cycle
the continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air
Abiotic Factor
all of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem
Producer
an organism that makes its own food; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals
