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Ecology Vocabulary
Review of Ecology Vocabulary Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| autotrophs | producers that make their own food, like plants |
| heterotrophs | consumers that cannot make their own food. |
| scavenger | something that has to find food, and will eat just about anything, like dead meat or roadkill. |
| predator | an animal that hunts for its food, which is called prey. |
| prey | the food caught and eaten by predators |
| decomposer | an organism which breaks down old or rotting matter and puts nutrients back into the soil. Examples are bacteria and fungi. |
| food chain | shows one way that the energy can travel from one living creature to another |
| matter | anything that has mass and takes up space |
| ecosystem | a place in which living things and non living things interact |
| abiotic | the non living factors in an ecosystem such as air and water |
| biotic | living factors in an ecosystem, such as plants and bacteria |
| biosphere | the earth and what lives on it |