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Ecosystems
5th grade Ecosystems Vocabulary
| 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, usually 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 only 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 Resource | 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 organisms live |
| 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 |