| A | B |
|---|
| ecosystem | all living and nonliving things in an area that interact |
| abiotic factors | the non-living parts of an ecosystem such as water, minerals, sunlight, air, climate, and soil |
| biotic factors | the living parts of an ecosystem such as animals, plants, fungi, protists, and bacteria |
| population | all the organisms of a species living in the same area |
| community | all the populations living in an area |
| ecology | study of how all things in an ecosystem interact |
| habitat | the place where an organism lives |
| niche | the role of an organism in the community |
| food chain | the path that energy takes from producers to consumers to decomposers |
| food web | shows the relationship between all of the species in a community |
| producer | grasses, trees, and all other organisms that use the Sun’s energy to make their own food |
| herbivores | eat plants, algae, and other producers |
| carnivores | animals that eat other animals |
| predators | living things that hunt other living things for food |
| prey | all creatures hunted by predators |
| scavengers | feed on the remains of dead animals |
| omnivores | an animal that eats both animals and plants |
| decomposers | organisms that break down dead matter into substances that can be used by producers |
| energy pyramid | shows the amount of energy available at each position, or level, of the food chain |
| consumer | organisms that eat plants or other animals |
| estuary | a body of water where fresh and salt water meet and mix |
| lagoon | a narrow body of water protected from the ocean by barrier islands |
| phytoplankton | microscopic plants that float in the water |
| zooplankton | microscopic animals that float in the water |
| brackish | slightly salty |
