Finals Vocabulary Flashcards
Energy Pyramid
An energy pyramid is a graphical model of energy flow in a community. The different levels represent different groups of organisms that might compose a food chain.
Food Chain
a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.
Food Web
a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
Producer
a person, company, or country that makes, grows, or supplies goods or commodities for sale.
Consumer
a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.
Biome
a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g., forest or tundra.
Ecology
the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Nitrogen Cycle
the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.
Water Cycle
the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and land, involving precipitation as rain and snow, drainage in streams and rivers, and return to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.
Carbon Cycle
the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels
Biotic Factors
Biotic factors are the living components of an ecosystem. They are sorted into three groups: producers or autotrophs, consumers or heterotrophs, and decomposers or detritivores.
Abiotic Factors
Abiotic factors are a non living species or something that has never been alive before
Predator
the preying of one animal on others
Prey
an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food.
Succession
A Cycle
