Unit 3-Community Ecology Flashcards
Definition of Tropic levels
levels in an ecosystem, organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same primary sources of energy
Definition of Autotroph
an organism that is able to make food from just the sun and natural substances. (plants)
Definition of Heterotroph
organisms that cannot make their own food and instead eat other organisms
Definition of Herbivore
An organism that only eats plants
Definition of Omnivore
An organism that eats both plants and animals
Definition of Carnivore
An organism that does not eat plants and only other organisms
Definition of Detritivore
an animal which feeds on dead organic material
What is the deference between a food web and a trophic cascade diagram?
A food web just shows what organisms eat each other while the tropic cascade does that and shows how the organisms are impacted by each other
What are the different tropic levels in order?
Producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, Quaternary consumers
What do solid arrows mean in a tropic cascade?
direct effect
What do dashed arrows mean in a tropic cascade?
indirect effect
What do minuses mean in a tropic cascade?
negative effect
What do pluses mean in a tropic cascade?
positive effect
