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Unit 9A Honors
Food Chains/Webs/Energy Pyramids
Term | Definition |
---|---|
food chain | A single, linear path showing the flow of energy from the sun to producers and through different levels of consumers. |
food web | Overlapping food chains with different pathways for the flow of food energy in the same ecosystem. |
trophic level | The position an organism occupies in the food web. |
producer | An organism that makes complex, energy containing biomolecules from simple inorganic molecules using energy captured from light or inorganic chemical compounds. |
consumer | An organism that must consume other organisms for nutrients. |
herbivore | An organism that consumes only plants. |
carnivore | An animal that eats other animals. |
omnivore | An organism that consumes both animals and plants. |
parasite | An organism that survives on a host organism and causes harm to the host. |
host | An organism upon or within which another organism lives. |
predator | An animal that lives by killing and eating other animals. |
prey | An animal that is eaten by another animal. |
aquatic ecosystem | An ecosystem that is located in a body of fresh or salt water. |
terrestrial ecosystem | An ecosystem that is found on land. |
marine ecosystem | An ecosystem found in oceans, seas, and gulfs where the water has a salt content of at least 3.5%. |
freshwater ecosystem | An ecosystem found in streams, lakes, and rivers where the water has less than 1% salt content. |
autotroph | An organism that obtains its nutrition from simple, inorganic compounds. |
heterotroph | An organism that must use other organisms for food, such as animals. |
energy pyramid | A diagram that shows the trophic levels of organisms in a food web. |
decomposer | An organism such as bacteria and fungi that breaks down the remains of dead organisms without need for internal digestion. |
scavenger | An organism that eats dead and decaying organisms and uses internal digestion to get the energy. (carnivores, insects, birds, many sea creatures) |
organic molecule | a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon and (in addition to carbon) H, O, N, P, S |
macromolecule | a very large molecule, such as protein, commonly created by chemically connecting smaller compounds; often composed of thousands of atoms. |
zooplankton | Heterotrophic plankton drifting in oceans, seas, or fresh water, often microscopic. Some grow up to be larger organisms. |
phytoplankton | Autotrophic plankton drifting in oceans, seas, or fresh water. Sometimes called microalgae, they are buoyant to stay in the parts of the water where there is sun. |