Ecology Vocabulary Flashcards
(14 cards)
Energy pyramid
A model that shows the available amount of energy in each trophic layer in an ecosystem.
Food web
A model that shows many different feeding relationships among living things in a given area.
Decomposer
Organisms which carry out the process of decomposition by breaking down dead or decaying organisms.
Food chain
A model that shows one set of feeding relationships among living things.
Coniferous
Plants that produce reproductive organs called cones.
Biome
A major ecological community such as grassland, tropical rain forest, or desert.
Deciduous
A forest containing trees that lose their leaves each year.
Cycle
The movement of a substance through different reservoirs or stages.
Nitrogen cycle
A process in which nitrogen in the atmosphere enters the soil and becomes part of living organisms then eventually returns to the atmosphere.
Water cycle
The continual movement of water between the land, ocean, and the air through predictable physical processes.
Abiotic factor
All of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
Producer
An organism that makes its own food; an organism that does not consume other plants or animals.
Carbon cycle
A natural cycle in which carbon compounds, mainly carbon dioxide, are incorporated into living tissue through photosynthesis and returned to the atmosphere by respiration, decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels.
Succession
The sequence of communities that develop in an area.
