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Ecosystems
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| producer | an organism that makes its own food |
| consumer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| herbivore | an animal that eats only plants |
| carnivore | an animal that eats only other animals |
| omnivore | an animal that eats both plants and animals |
| scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| decomposer | an organism that breaks down large chemicals from dead organisms into small chemicals and returns important material to the soil and water |
| food chain | a series of event in which one organism eats another |
| 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 |
| condensation | the process by which a gas changes to a liquid |
| evaporation | the process by which molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to the gas state |
| precipitation | rain, snow, sleet or hail occur when water vapor condenses and eventually fall to Earth |
| nitrogen fixation | the process of changing free nitrogen gas into a useable form |
| biogeography | the study of where organisms live |
| dispersal | the movement of organisms from one place to another |
| native species | species that have naturally evolved in an area |
| exotic species | species that are carried to a new location by people |
| climate | the typical weather pattern in an area over a long period of time |
| biome | a group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms |
| canopy | a leafy roof formed by tall trees |
| understory | a layer of shorter plants that grow in the shade of a forest canopy |
| desert | an area in which the yearly amount of evaporation is greater than the amount of precipitation |
| grassland | an area populated by grasses that gets 25 to 75 cm of rain each year |
| savanna | a grassland close to the equator |
| deciduous tree | trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year |
| coniferous tree | trees that produce their seeds in cones and have needle-shaped leaves |
| tundra | an extremely cold, dry biome |
| permafrost | soil that is frozen all year |
| estuary | a habitat in which the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean |
| intertidal zone | the area between the highest high-tide line and the lowest low-tide line |
| neritic zone | the region of shallow ocean water over the continental shelf |
Created by:
leannezecco
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