Term | Definition |
producer | organisms that make food from energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, and water |
consumer | organisms that eat other organisms for energy |
decomposer | organisms that eat dead plants and animals and breaks down material into simple chemicals |
ecosystem | a community of organisms living together and interacting with the nonliving environment |
system | any collection of interacting parts that work together to make a whole or produce or perform a function |
subsystem | a system that is inside or part of a larger system |
carnivore | animals that eat only other animals |
hervivore | animals that eat only plants |
ominvore | animals that eat plants and other animals |
experiment | an investigation designed to find out how variables affect the outcome |
subsystem | a system that is part of a larger system |
food chain | describes the feeding relationships between a series of organisms |
food web | describes all of the feeding interactions in an ecosystem |
grinder decomposer | reduce organic matter to very small particles |
finisher decomposer | use organic matter for food leaving behind only nutrients |
biosphere | all the plants, animals, and other living things in the water, on the land, and in the air- a subsystem of Earth |
geosphere | rocks, minerals, and landforms of the subsystem of Earth |
atmoshpere | gases surrounding Earth - a subsystem of Earth |
hydrosphere | water on Earth in the rivers, lakes, seas, groundwater, ocean and atmosphere- a subsystem of Earth |
phytoplankton | producer that floats in a marine ecosystem |
zooplankton | microscopic animals that eat phytoplankton |
system | a collection of interacting parts that work together to make a whole or perform a function |