Question | Answer |
photosynthesis | process by which green plants and blue-green algae, in the presence of light, make food out of carbon dioxide and water |
consumer | consumer an organism in a community that must eat to get the energy it needs because it cannot make its own food |
food chain | the ways in which the organisms in an ecosystem interact with one another according to what they eat |
aquatic | living in water |
population | all the individuals of the same kind living in the same environment |
pollution | waste products that damage an ecosystem |
water pollution | conditions that exist when harmful materials have entered the water and made it harmful to organisms |
terrestrial | of or related to the land |
producer | an organism that makes its own food (through photosynthesis) |
scavenger | an organism that eats dead or decaying matter |
organism | a living thing |
ecosystem | a community and its physical environment together |
individual | a single organism in an environment |
pollutant | anything that spreads harmful or unpleasant substances into the air, water, or ground |
ecology | the science concerned with the relationships among living things and their environment |
respiration | the process by which an organism takes in and processes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide |
community | all the populations of organisms living together in an environment |
habitat | a place in an ecosystem where a population lives |
decomposer | consumer that breaks down the tissues of dead organisms |
fossil fuel | a fuel formed from the remains of once-living organisms |
food web | shows the interactions among many different food chains in a single ecosystem |
acid rain | precipitation resulting from pollution condensing into clouds and falling to Earth |
environment | everything that surrounds an organism and influences it |
decay | the process where bacteria and other decomposers break down dead things |
biome | large ecosystem with its own climate, soil, plants and animals--found in different parts of the world (six major ones) |
adapt | change; to change in order to fit a new situation or use |
niche | the role each population has in its habitat |
herbivore | an animal that eats only plants |
carnivore | an animal that eats meat (other animals) |
omnivore | an organism that eats both plants and meat |
tropical rain forest | warm all year, very wet (rains almost every day); has a wide variety of plant and animal species; found near the equator |
tundra | long cold winters, short cool summers; little precipitation (dry); treeless; found in polar regions; little variety of plant and animal life |
desert | can be hot or cold (depending on location); very dry |
temperate forest | moderate temperature and rainfall; four different seasons of weather; also called deciduous forest |
taiga | long, cold winters, and short, mild, wet summers; may also called coniferous forest |
grasslands | hot summers, cold winters; light precipitation; may also be called prairies; mostly grasses grow with few trees |