Question | Answer |
producer | an organism that can make its 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 eats both plants and animals |
scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
decomposers | organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment |
food chain | a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy |
food web | many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
energy pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web. |
water cycle | the continuous process by which water moves from Earth's surface to the atmosphere and back |
evaporation | liquid water absorb energy and change to the gas state |
condensation | a gas changes to a liquid |
precipitation | rain, snow, sleet, or hail |
carbon - oxygen cycle | the cycle of oxygen being released from plants, organisms taking in the oxygen, and releasing carbon dioxide which the plants use |
nitrogen cycle | the cycle where nitrogen in the air is fixed into a usable form for plants and organisms, and returned to the soil |
nitrogen fixation | changing free nitrogen gas into a usable form |
nodules | bumps on the roots of legumes where bacteria can change free nitrogen into a usable form |
biogeography | the study where organisms live |
continental drift | the very slow motion of the continents |
dispersal | the movement of organisms from one place to another |
native species | species that have naturally evolved in an area |
exotic species | a species that is carried into a new location |
climate | the typical weather pattern over a long period of time |
weather | day to day conditions in an area |