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Ecosystem
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| abiotic | Abiotic factors are the non-living factors in an environment such as temperature, light, water, and nutrients. Biotic factors are living organisms that are part of an environment. |
| biotic | Biotic factors are living organisms that are part of an environment. Together abiotic and biotic factors make up our surroundings. For example, lets take a look at our earth. |
| ecosystem | An ecosystem is made up of the interaction of all living organisms (like animals, plants, and bugs) in an area with all of the non-living organisms (like water, dirt, rocks, and the sun). |
| habitat | A habitat is the home of an animal or a plant. |
| organisms | An organism is a living thing that can function on its own. |
| population | Population is the number of people living in a certain place. |
| community | A community is a group of people living or working together in the same area |
| biosphere | Earth's living things make up the biosphere. |
| producer | Producers create, or produce, goods and provide services, and consumers buy those goods and services with money |
| consumer | Consumers are the people who buy goods and services |
| decomposer | A decomposer is a living thing that breaks down dead plants, animals or waste |
| herbivore | An herbivore is an organism that feeds mostly on plants. Herbivores range in size from tiny insects such as aphids to large, lumbering elephants. |
| omnivore | An omnivore is an organism that regularly consumes a variety of material, including plants, animals, algae, and fungi |
| scavenger | A scavenger is an organism that consumes mostly decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant matter. |
| predator | an animal that kills and eats other animals |
| pray | animals that are killed and eaten by other animals |
| niche | the role an organism plays in a community |
| biome | a large region with a certain climate and certain types of living things. |
| terrestrial ecosystem | a land-based community of organisms and the interactions of biotic and abiotic components in a given area |
| deciduous forest | characterized by trees that lose their leaves at the end of each growing season |
| rainforest | an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall |
| grassland | area in which the vegetation is dominated by a nearly continuous cover of grasses |
| desert | a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems |
| aquatic ecosystem | living things that depend on the water for survival, such as fish, plants, and microorganisms. |
| freshwater | water found in ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, glaciers, icebergs, ice caps and sheets. |
| pond | small bodies of still, or not moving, fresh water that are surrounded by land |
| lake | an inland body of water surrounded by land |
| river/stream | a body of water that flows on Earth's surface to the ocean |
| saltwater ecosystem | The ocean ecosystem includes everything in the oceans, as well as the saltwater bays, seas and inlets, the shorelines and salt marshes. |
| ocean | An. ocean is a huge body of salt water. Oceans cover nearly 71 percent of Earth's surface. They contain almost 98 percent of all the water on Earth. Interactive. |
| salt marsh | Salt marshes are wetlands that form between the ocean and the land. As the tide rises, they're covered with saltwater and when the tide falls, the water leaves the marsh. |
| estuary | An estuary is an area at the end of a river that is in between land and the ocean. In estuaries, fresh water from a river mixes with salt water from the ocean, creating water that we call brackish. |
| food chain | A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. Some animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals. For example, a simple food chain links the trees & shrubs, the giraffes (that eat trees & shrubs), and the lions (that eat the giraffes). c |
| primary consumers | Primary consumers are organisms that eat ONLY producers and are all herbivores (plant-eaters) like rabbits, snails, cows, and even giraffes! |
| secondary consumers | Secondary consumers are those that predate upon primary consumers, and tertiary consumers predate upon secondary consumers. Secondary consumers are either carnivores (which eat meat) or omnivores (which eat a mixture of plants and meat). |
| tertiary consumers | Tertiary consumers are those that eats the secondary consumers (large predators). For example, owls that eat snakes. |
| trophic levels | A food chain describes the order in which organisms eat each other in the wild. The different positions in a food chain are called trophic levels. |
| autotroph | An autotroph is an organism that can make its own food by synthesizing organic nutrients from inorganic materials, using energy from sunlight or a chemical source to drive the process. |
| heterotrph | Heterotrophs are organisms that can't make their own food and so must get energy by eating plants and animals to survive. Autotrophs are plants and they make their own food by capturing the sun's energy through photosynthesis. |
| carnivore | an organism that mostly eats meat, or the flesh of animals |
| food web | a group of food chains within an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | a model that shows the flow of energy from one tropic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem. |
| competition | a situation in which two or more people or groups are trying to get something which not everyone can have |
| natural resources | something that is found in nature and can be used by people. |
| brackish | somewhat salty |
Created by:
Ymendes
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