Transcript Ecology and Ecosystems Vocabulary

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