Food Webs And Stuff Flashcards
Ecosystems
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Producer
Is an organism, either a green plant or bacterium, which is part of the first level of a food chain. Hawaiian Translation: Ho’ohua (to produce) This ‘a’ali’i plant is a producer.
Consumer
Is an organism that feeds on plants or other animals for energy. There are four types of consumers; herbivores (plant eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), omnivores (plant and animal eaters), and detritivores (decomposers).
Scavenger
An animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse.
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.
Energy pyramid
An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
Heterotroph
an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances.
Autotroph
an organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide.
Tropic level
each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.
Biomass
the total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.
Nitrogen fixation
the chemical processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into organic compounds, especially by certain microorganisms as part of the nitrogen cycle.
Abiotic
physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms.
Biotic
relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.
Primary succession
Primary succession is one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier, is deposited.
Secondary succession
DescriptionSecondary succession is one of the two types ecological succession of a plants life.
Pioneer species
DescriptionPioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems.
Weathering
wear away or change the appearance or texture of (something) by long exposure to the air.
Erosion
the process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents.
Deposition
the action of deposing someone, especially a monarch.
