Unit 3- Living in Harmony Flashcards
Abiotic
Any nonliving component of an ecosystem
Aquatic
Living in water
Biome
a geographic area characterized by specific kinds of plants and animals
Biotic
A living component of an ecosystem.
Calorie
A quantity of food capable of producing such an amount of energy.
Carnivore
A consumer that eats other consumers.
Climate
The sum total of all atmospheric or meteorological influences, principally temperature, moisture, wind, pressure, and evaporation, which combine to characterize a region and give it individuality by influencing the nature of its landforms, soils, vegetation, and land use.
Consumer
An organism, usually an animal that feeds on plants or other animals.
Desert
An area where rainfall averages less than 25 cm per year.
Ecology
The study of the relationship between organisms and their environment.
Ecosystem
All the biotic and abiotic components of an environment.
Energy
The capacity for work or vigorous activity.
Energy Pyramid
A depiction of the amount of energy in each trophic level of an ecosystem.
Environment
The sum total of all the external conditions that may act upon an organism or community to influence its development or existence.
Fauna
The total wild animal life of an area in the broadest sense, including wild animals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, and smaller animal life.
Flora
The aggregate of plants that grow without cultivation in a given area within a stated period of time.
Food Chain
Pathway beginning with producers along which energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level.
Food Web
The interconnected food chains in an ecosystem.
Grassland
A region in which the vegetation is mainly grass or other herbaceous plants. Climate conditions are intermediate between those of forest regions and of deserts.
Herbivore
A consumer that eats primary producers.
Interdependence
Mutually dependent; depending on each other.
Metabolism
The sum of all chemical processes in living things.
Omnivore
An animal that eats both plants and animals.
Organism
Any living individual whether plant or animal.
Photosynthesis
Process by which green plants, using chlorophyll and the energy of sunlight, produce carbohydrates from water and carbon dioxide, and release oxygen.
Producer
An organism, as a plant, that is able to produce its own food from inorganic substances.
Taiga
Forested biome characterized by cone-bearing evergreen trees.
Temperate deciduous forest
A forest characterized by trees that shed their leaves in the fall.
Trophic level
A feeding level in an ecosystem.
Tropical forest
A biome near the equator characterized by large amounts of rain and sunlight.
Tundra
A biome of low-growing vegetation.
