Section 2.2: Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem Vocab

Question 1

autotroph

Answer 1

an organism that collects energy from sunlight of inorganic substances to produce food

Question 1

heterotroph

Answer 1

an organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms

Question 2

herbivore

Answer 2

a heterotroph that only eats plants

Question 3

carnivore

Answer 3

heterotrophs that prey on other heterotrophs

Question 4

omnivore

Answer 4

organisms that eat both plants and animals

Question 5

detritovores

Answer 5

organisms that eat fragments of dead matter in an ecosystem, return nutrients to the soil, air, and water where the nutrients can be reused by organisms

Question 6

trophic level

Answer 6

each step in a food chain or food web

Question 7

food chain

Answer 7

a simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem

Question 8

food web

Answer 8

a model representing the many interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy flows through a group of organisms

Question 9

biomass

Answer 9

the total mass of living matter at each trophic level