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Ecosystems
Term | Definition |
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Biotic Factors: | a living thing, such as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem. |
Abiotic Factors: | a nonliving condition or thing, such as climate or habitat, that influences or affects an ecosystem and the organisms in it. |
Producers: | an organism, like a plant, that can produce its food from inorganic substances |
Consumers: | an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on plants or other animals. |
Decomposers: | an organism, usually a bacterium or fungus, that breaks down the cells of dead plants and animals into simpler substances. |
Herbivores: | animals that get their energy by only eating producers or plants. |
Carnivore: | animals that get their energy by only eating other consumers. |
Omnivore: | animals that get their energy by eating producers (plants) and consumers (animals) |
Predator: | any organism that exists by preying on other organisms. |
Prey | an animal hunted or seized for food, especially by a predatory animal. |
Terrestrial Ecosystem: | a land-based community of organisms |
Aquatic Ecosystem: | an ecosystem in a body of water. |
Food chains: | the path of food energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem |
Food webs: | overlapping food chains with different pathways for the flow of food energy in an ecosystem |
energy pyramid: | a diagram that shows the amount of energy passed on at each level of a food chain |
competition: | the struggle of organisms against each other to get the same resource |
natural resources: | materials in the environment that useful to people |
Population: | all the organisms of the same species that live in the same place at the same time |
Community: | populations of different kinds of organisms that live in the same place at the same time. |
Habitat: | the environment where an organism lives |
Estuary: | a place where fresh water from a river empties into the ocean and mixes with it |
Brackish: | slightly salty, as is the mixture of river water and seawater in estuaries. |