Term | Definition |
Producers | organisms (plants) that use the Sun’s energy to make their own food. |
Predators | Animals that kill and eat other animals for food. |
Prey | Animals that other animals hunt for food. |
Food Chain | A series of organisms through which energy is passed. |
Decomposers | Organisms that break down the dead bodies of other organisms. They are the last step of the food chain and are too small to see without a microscope. |
Adapt | Go through changes that make them fit in better with the environment around them. |
Photosynthesis | A process when plants use water, carbon dioxide and energy from the sun to make sugar. |
Consumers | A living thing that eats another living thing. |
Herbivores | A living creature that eats only or mostly plants. |
Omnivores | A living creature that eats a wide variety of plants and animals. |
Symbiosis | A partnership between living things. |
Carnivores | A living creature that is only or mostly a meat eater. |
Mutualism | A kind of symbiosis in which both partners benefit. |
Parasites | An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by taking nutrients from them. |
Parasitism | A kind of symbiosis in which one partner benefits and the other is harmed. |
Scavenger | An animal that consumes dead animals, but does not kill the animals itself. |
Host | The partner that is used as a source of food by the parasite. |
Commensalism | One partner benefits, but does not hurt or harm the other partner. |
Food Web | a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains. |