ecology and ecosystems vocabulary
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Ecology and Ecosystems Vocabulary. Autotroph. Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds ; also called a producer. Producer. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Ecology and Ecosystems Vocabulary
Autotroph
• Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds; also called a producer
Producer
• Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic compounds; also called an autotroph
Heterotroph
• Organism that relies on other organisms for their energy and food supply; also called a consumer
Consumer
• Organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food; also called heterotroph
Herbivore
• Heterotroph that obtains energy by only eating plants
Carnivore
• Heterotroph that obtains energy by eating animals
Omnivore
• Heterotroph that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals
Decomposer
• Heterotroph that breaks down organic matter
Food Chain
• A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
Food Web
• Links all the food chains in an ecosystem together
Trophic Level
• Each step in a food chain or food web; first level is producers, then consumers, which make up second, third, and higher levels
Ecological Pyramid
• A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or web; 3 types: energy, biomass, and pyramids of numbers
• The energy/biomass starts at 100% for the producers with only about 10 percent of that energy transfers to organisms at the next trophic level
Biotic Factors
• Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem
• Including birds, trees, mushrooms, and bacteria, etc.
Abiotic Factors
• Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems
• Temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, nutrient availability, soil type, sunlight, etc.
Predation
• An interaction in which one organism (predator) captures and feeds on another organism (prey)
• Predator Prey
Symbiosis
• Any relationship in which two species live closely together
Mutualism
• Both species benefit from the relationship
Commensalism
• One member of the relationship benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed
Parasitism
• One orgasm lives on or inside another organism and harms it
Thermal Energy
• Heat; the total amount of kinetic energy due to the random motion of atoms or molecules in a body of matter; energy at its most random form; with each energy transfer from ATP, a bit of energy slipped off into the surroundings as thermal energy