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ecosystems
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Biotic Factors | a living thing, 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, as a plant, that is able to produce its own 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. |
| Herbivore | 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 both 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 carnivorous 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 love 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. |
| air resistance | the force of air that slows down falling objects |