Term | Definition |
Biotic | The living things in an ecosystem |
Abiotic | The non-living things in an ecosystem |
Producer/Audotroph | Get their own food through photosynthesis |
Consumer/heterotroph | Herbivore, Carnivore, omnivore, or scavengers |
Decomposer | Break down dead or decaying organisms and return nutrients to the soil |
Herbivore | Eats plants only |
Carnivore | Eats only meat |
Omnivore | Eats plants and meats |
Scavenger | Eats dead plants and animals |
Food Chain | Show how matter and energy move through an ecosystem in a series of steps showing which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. |
Food Web | Models that show all the possible feeding relationships at each tropic level in a community, links all food chains in an ecosystem together. |
Sun's role in food | Source of all energy for living things |
Chain/web | The complex system of interrelated food chains in an environment is known as a food web |
Energy Pyramid | A pyramid that shows how energy flows from organism to organism |
Symbiosis | A relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. |
Mutualism | A relationship in which both species benefits |
Commensalism | A relationship in which one species is helped and one is uneffected |
Parasitism | A relationship in which one species is helped and one is harmed |
Predator/prey | An interaction between two organisms of unlike species in which one of them acts as predator that captures and feeds on the other organism that serves as the prey. |
Competition | An interaction between organisms, populations or species in which birth, growth and death depend on gaining a share of limited environmental resource |
Adaptation | A change or the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to it's environment |