flow of energy Flashcards
Ecosystem
a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Producer
a person, company, or country that makes, grows, or supplies goods or commodities for sale.
Consumer
a person or thing that eats or uses something.
Decomposer
an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.
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.
Photosynthesis
the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.
Cellular Respiration
Cellular respiration, the process by which organisms combine oxygen with foodstuff molecules, diverting the chemical energy in these substances into life-sustaining activities and discarding, as waste products, carbon dioxide and water.