Ecosystems Flashcards
Energy pyramid
A model that shows the available energy in each tropic layer in a ecosystem.
A food web
A model that shows different feeding relationships among living things
Decomposers
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: _
Conifers
a type of plant with needle-like leaves that uses cones to reproduce:
Heterotrophs
an organism that eats other living things to get energy; an organism that does not produce its own food (related word: consume): _
Biomes
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:
Fixation
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: _
The water cycle
the continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air: _
Abiotic factors
- all of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem
Auto trophs
an organism that makes its own food; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals
