Term | Definition |
Flow of matter | Matter enters an ecosystem at any level and leaves at any level. Matter cycles freely between trophic levels and between the ecosystem and the physical environment. |
Flow of energy | moves through the community of an ecosystem in a single direction by means of a food chain (web) in which there are the eaters, the eaten, and a combination of both. |
Trophic levels | The position of a species or a group of species within a food chain or food web. |
Food chains | simplified model that shows a single path for energy flow through an ecosystem. |
Food webs | model that shows many interconnected food chains and path ways in which energy and matter flow through an ecosystem. |
Ecological pyramids | is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem. Biomass is the amount of living or organic matter present in an organism. |
Marine ecosystem | ecosystems which include oceans, salt marsh and intertidal ecology, estuaries and lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs, the deep sea and the sea floor. |
Ecosystem | biological community and all the nonliving factors that affect it. |
Heat | a nonmechanical energy transfer with reference to a temperature difference between a system and its surroundings or between two parts of the same system. |
Terrestrial | Living or growing on land or on or in the ground; not aquatic, arboreal, or epiphytic |
Producer | is an organism, either a green plant or bacterium, which is part of the first level of a food chain. |
Decomposer | An organism, often a bacterium or fungus, that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, thus making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem. |
Omnivore | is an animal that eats both plants and animals for their main food |
Predator | wild animals that hunt, or prey on, other animals. |
Energy pyramid | is a graphical model of energy flow in a community. The different levels represent different groups of organisms that might compose a food chain. |