| A | B |
|---|
| energy flow | the energy flows from one living thing to another in several steps these steps are based on what a living thing eats and where it gets its food . Each living thing fills a niche in this flow of energy . |
| energy from the sun | the sun provides materials with what they need , these materials are energy from the sunlight , materials from the air , water , and soil . |
| producer | a living thing containing chorphill and capable of using sunlight to make its own food from materials taken from the soil and air . |
| consumer | a living thing that eats other living things . |
| herbivore | an animal that eats only plants or plant materials . |
| carnivore | an animal that eats only other animals . |
| recieving energy | animals and small living things recieve their energy by eating the stored food in plants or by eating other organisms . |
| omnivore | an animal that eats both plants and animals . |
| decomposer | a living thing that feeds on dead materials , breaking them down and returning the materials to the environment . |
| food chain | the arrangement of living things in an order in which each uses the next as a source of food . |
| food web | a combination of all the food chains in an ecosystem . |
| food pyramid | a diagram to show how the amount of food energy available changes at each step of the food chain . |
| limiting factor | a factor that controls the number of living things that an ecosystem can support . |
| carrying capacity | the maximum number of living things that a given ecosystem can support without danger to survival of the living things . |
| cycle | the movement of resources in an ecosystem that results in materials being used again and again . |
| using energy | plants are mainly involved in using energy along with trees and grasses . When the plants do make food most of it is used by plants themselves . The food energy that isn't used is stored . |
| recieving | animals or small living things can't make their own food . So they can eat the stored energy in plants or other organisms . |
| amount of food | the populations with the largest amount of food energy available available to the plants and animals are the biggest . The populations with the smallest amount of food energy available to the plants and animals are the smallest . |
| number of organisms | the largest populations and the most food energy in a community are in the producer (plant ) step . |
| balance in ecosystems | the population in a community or niche should be balanced , and can only support a certain number of organisms . There must be enough space , food energy , air , and water for there to be an equal balance . |
| water cycle | it is a continous process : the evaporation of water , codensation leading to precipation , and run off . |
