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Enviormental Science
Vocab. Chapter #3
Term | Definition |
---|---|
carnivore | consumers that eat only other consumers (flesh-eaters) |
cellular respiration | the process of breaking down food to yield energy |
climax community | the community that eventually forms if the land is left undisturbed |
consumer | gets energy by eating other organisms |
decomposer | consumers that get their food by breaking down dead organisms, causing them to rot. |
food chain | sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another. |
food web | an illustration of what organisms eat in an ecosystem |
herbivore | consumers that eat only producers (plant-eaters) |
nitrogen-fixing bacteria | the only organisms that can use nitrogen gas directly from the atmosphere are a few species of bacteria |
omnivore | eats both the producers and consumers (plants and animals) |
pioneers | the first organisms to colonize any newly available area and start the process of succession. |
precipitation | When the clouds meet cold air, the water returns to the earth again in the form of precipitation, rain, sleet or snow. |
primary succession | succession that occurs on surfaces where not ecosystem existed before |
producer | an organism that makes its own food |
secondary succession | occurs on a surface where an ecosystem has previously existed, such as in the burned aras around Mount St. Halens |
succession | is a regular pattern of changes over time in the types of species in a community. |
trophic level | each step in the transfer of energy through an ecosystem |
water cycle | water moves between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere in a process called the water cycle. |