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Ecosystems and Biome
Chapter 2 Science Vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Producer | An organism that makes it's own food. |
Consumer | An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms. |
Herbivore | Consumers that eat only plants. |
Carnivore | Consumers that eat only animals. |
Omnivore | Consumers that eat both plants and animals. |
Scavenger | A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms. |
Decomposer | Organisms that break down biotic wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystems. |
Food Chain | A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtain energy |
Food Web | It consists of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
Energy Pyramid | Shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web. |
Evaporation | The process in which molecules of liquid water absorb energy and change to a gas |
Condensation | The process in which gas changes to a liquid |
Percipitation | The process in which water vapor condenses and eventually grows larger into rain, snow, sleet or hail |
Nitrogen Fixation | The process of changing free nitrogen, into a usable form of nitrogen. |
Biome | A group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms. |
Climate | The average annual temperature and amount of precipitation. |
Desert | An area that receives less than 25 centimeters of rain per year. |
Rain Forest | Forests with large amount of rainfall each year |
Emergent Layer | The tallest layer of the rainforest which receives the most sunlight |
Canopy | A leafy roof |
Understory | A shaded Layer of the rainforest |
Grassland | An area that is populated mostly by grasses and other non-woody plants |
Savanna | An area that receives as much as 120 centimeters of rain per year |
Deciduous Tree | Trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year |
Boreal Forest | Dense forests found in upper regions of the northern hemispheres |
Coniferous Tree | Trees that produce seeds or cones |
Tundra | Extremely cold and dry |
Permafrost | Frozen Soil |
Estuary | the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream. |
Intertidal Zone | the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide |
Neritic Zone | the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf |
Biogeography | Where organisms live and how they got there. |
Continental Drift | Plates moving, moving the continents |
Dispersal | The movement of organisms from one place to another. |
Exotic Species | An organism carried to a new location by humans. |