Ecosystems Flashcards
(27 cards)
Abiotic Factors
The non-living aspects of an environment
Autotroph
Organism that can produce its own nutrients
Biological magnification
The build-up of a chemical within an organism as a result of its progress along a food chain,increasing in concentration with repeated doses ( also known as bioaccumulation)
Biotic factors
The living aspects of an environment
Biosphere
The regions of the surface and atmosphere of the earth or another planet occupied by living organisms
Carnivore
Animal that eats other animals
Community
All the populations of various organisms, both plant and animal, living in a given area at the same time
Competitors
Livings things fighting for the same resource in an environment
Consumer
Organism that relies on other organisms for its food
Decomposers
Small organisms that break down dead and decaying matter
Deforestation
The action of clearing a wide area of trees
Ecosystem
Community of living things that interact with each other and with the environment in which they live
Energy pyramid
A diagram that shows a food chain or food web in a layered pyramid structure illustrated that there is less food energy to go around and therefore fewer of each type of organism in each ascending layer.
Environment
The living and non-living aspects that affect organisms living in a particular place
First-order consumer
Organism that eats plants
Food chain
Diagram, beginning with a producer that shows what organism eat
Food web
A number of food chains joined together
Habitat
The place in which a particular organism lives
Herbivore
Animal that only eats plants
Heterotroph
An organism that depends on another organism for food
Omnivore
Animal that eats both plants and other animals
Population
All the individual organism of one particular species in a given area at one time
Predator
Animal that hunts other animals for food
Prey
Animal hunted by another animal for food
