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EARTH’S BIOMES
& ECOSYSTEMS
VOCABUL ARY
• Producer – also called autotroph, plants and many singlecelled organisms that make their own food, often using
energy from the sun
• Consumer – many living things that consume other living
things to get food
• Decomposer – fungi and many bacteria that break down
dead organisms or the wastes of other organisms
• Photosynthesis – process where plants use energy from
sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make sugars
• Chloroplast – an organelle in plants where photosynthesis
takes place
• Chlorophyll – a green pigment in chloroplasts that capture
energy from sunlight
• Adenine Triphosphate (ATP) – energy stored that powers
may of the chemical reactions in a cell
• Cellular Respiration – process of breaking down food to
produce ATP
• Ecosystem – community of living organisms and their
nonliving environment
• Habitat – place where an organism lives within an
ecosystem
• Microhabitats – the smallest habitats
• Niche – position or role a species has in an ecosystem
• Herbivore – consumer that eats only plants
• Carnivore – consumer that only eats other animals
• Omnivore – consumer that eats both plants and animals
• Scavenger – consumer that feeds on dead organisms
• Food Chain – path of energy transfer from producers to
consumers
• Food Web – shows the feeding relationship among many
different organisms
• Energy Pyramid – tool that can be used to trace the slow
of energy through an ecosystem
• Nitrogen Cycle – movement of nitrogen between the
environment and living things
• Nitrogen Fixation – process where nitrogen gas changes
into forms that plants can use
• Carbon Cycle – the movement of carbon through and
between organisms and the physical environment
• Biome – region of Earth where climate determines the
types of plants that live there
• Wetland – area of land that is saturated with water for at
least part of the year
• Estuary – partially enclosed body of water formed where a
river flows into an ocean
• Immigration – when individuals join a population
• Emigration – when individuals leave a population
• Carrying Capacity – the maximum number of individuals of
one species that the environment can support
• Limiting Factor – a part of the environment that keeps a
population’s size at a level below its full potential
• Competition – when two or more individuals or populations
try to use the same limited resource
• Cooperation – when individuals work together
• Eutrophication – process in which organic matter and
nutrients slowly build up in a body of water
• Succession – slow development or replacement of an
ecological community over time
• Pioneer Species – the first organisms to live in an uninhabited
area
• Biodiversity – number and variety of species that are present
in an area