ECOLOGY STUDY GUIDE Flashcards
(21 cards)
Ecosystem
The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving environment.
Producer
An organism that can make their own food
Consumer
An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms
Scavenger
A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead or decaying organisms
Decomposer
An organism that gets energy by breaking down biotic wastes and dead organisms, and returns raw materials to the soil and water.
Food Chain
A series of events in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and by being eaten.
Food Web
The pattern of overlapping feeding relationships or food chains among the various organisms in an ecosystem.
Energy Pyramid
A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web.
Heterotroph
An organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things.
Autotroph
An organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food.
Nitrogen Fixation
The process of changing free nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds that plants can absorb and use.
Abiotic
non living
Biotic
Living
Primary Succesion
The series of changes that occur in an area where no soil or organisms exist.
Secondary Succesion
The series of changes that occur in an area where the ecosystem has been disturbed, but where soil and organisms still exist.
Pioneer Species
The first species to populate an area during succession.
Weathering
The chemical and physical processes that break down rock and other substances.
Erosion
he process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered particles of rock and soil.
Deposition
Process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.
Trophic Level
levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.
Biomass
the total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.
