Ecosystems Flashcards
Biome
A major ecological community such as grassland, tropical rain forest, or desert.
Energy pyramid
A model that shows the available amount of energy in each tropic 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 feeding relationships among living things
Coniferous
Plants the 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
Deciduous
A forest containing trees that lose their leaves every 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 factors
All of the living parts of an ecosystem
Water cycle
The continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air
Abiotic factors
All of the non living parts of an ecosystem
Producer
An organism that makes its own food; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals
Carbon cycle
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
Predator
An animal that hunts and eats another animal
Prey
An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal
Succession
The sequence of communities that develop in an area
