| A | B |
|---|
| ecology | study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and their physical environment |
| habitat | the place where a particular population of species lives |
| biodiversity | the number of species within an ecosystem |
| succession | the series of changes that occur in an ecosystem over time |
| primary succession | succession that occurs on land where nothing has grown before |
| secondary succession | succession in areas of previous growth |
| producers | organisms that produce their own food by photosynthesis |
| consumers | organisms that obtain energy by consuming plants and/or other organisms |
| herbivores | plant eaters |
| carnivores | meat eaters |
| omnivores | animals that are both carnivores and herbivores |
| food chain | path of energy through an ecosystem |
| biomass | the dry weight of tissue and other organic matter |
| food web | the combination of all the food chains in an ecosystem |
| decomposer | fungi or bacteria that help to break down/decompose dead or decaying material |
| scavengers | carnivores that feed on organisms that was killed by another organism |
| predator | an organism that hunts and kills other animals for food |
| prey | an organism that was killed by a predator |
| acid precipitation | precipitation that has a low pH due to air pollution |
| biome | a large region of the world with characteristic climate, soil type and distinctive plant life |
| abiotic | non-living |
| biotic | living |
| biosphere | the Earth |
| extinction of species | species that are no longer here on earth |
| greenhouse effect | the warming of air caused by the sun's radiation (sunlight) passing into the atmosphere and being trapped by the carbon dioxide layer in the atmosphere |
| pH | a measure of acidity or alkalinity |
| global warming | the increase in temperature of the Earth due to increasing human release of CO2 |
