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T3.2 Energy Flow
3.2 Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Term | Definition |
---|---|
producer | an organism that can make its own food |
consumer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
decomposer | an organism that gets energy by breaking down biotic wastes and dead organisms and returns raw materials to the soil and water |
food chain | a series of events in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and by being eaten |
food web | the pattern of overlapping feeding relationships or food chains among the various organisms in an ecosystem |
energy pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
photosynthesis | the process by which plants and other autotrophs capture and use light energy to make food from carbon dioxide and water |
chlorophyll | a green photosynthetic pigment found in the chloroplasts of plants, algae, and some bacteria |
autotroph | an organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and uses it to produce its own food |
heterotroph | an organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things |
carnivore | consumer that only eat other animals; meat eaters |
scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
herbivore | consumers that only eat plants |
omnivore | consumers that eat both plants and animals |
first-level consumers | eat producers from the base of the energy pyramid |
second-level consumers (secondary consumers) | eat the first level consumers from the energy pyramid |
third-level consumers (tertiary consumers) | eat the second level of consumers from the energy pyramid |
apex predator | predator at the top of the food chain; with natural predators of its own |
sunlight, carbon dioxide, water | what plants need for photosynthesis |