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Energy Flow
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Trophic level | Feeding level in a food chain, food web, or energy pyramid |
producer | an organism that makes its own food; bottom of food chain/web/pyramid |
consumer | an organism that has to get its food from another organism because it cannot make its own |
herbivore | an animal that eats only plants |
carnivore | an animal that eats only other animals |
omnivore | an animal that eats both plants and animals |
food chain | shows one path of energy through an ecosystem |
food web | shows many paths of energy flowing through an ecosystem; overlapping food chains; more realistic than a food chain |
decomposer | an organism that breaks down dead organisms and releases the nutrients back to the ecosystem |
What does the arrow in a food chain or food web represent? | Energy |
What is the primary source of energy for life on earth? | the sun |
Succession | the constant replacement of one community by another |
Primary succession | the type of ecological succession that takes place on new lands--lands where life has not yet existed. |
Pioneer species | the species that first lives in the habitat |
Secondary Succession | the type of ecological succession that occurs in areas where life has already existed and the soil is full of nutrients |
Biome | A large area with similar climate and similar populations of organisms |
Climate | the typical weather in an area over a long period of time (includes precipitation and average temperature) |