| A | B |
|---|
| organism | a living that obtains food, water, shelter, and other things it needs to live, grow, and reproduce from its environment |
| habitat | An environment that provides the things the organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce |
| biotic factors | the living parts of an organism's habitat |
| abiotic factors | the nonliving parts of an organism's habitat. They include water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil |
| photosynthesis | A process in which water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide are combined to make food. |
| species | a group of organisms that are physically similar and can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce. |
| population | all the members of one species in a particular area. |
| community | all the different populations that live together in an area. |
| ecosystems | The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving surroundings. |
| ecology | The study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment. |
| producer | An organism that can make its own food |
| consumer | An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| herbivores | consumers that eat only plants |
| carnivores | consumers that eat only animals |
| omnivores | consumers that eat both plants and animals |
| scavenger | carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| decomposers | break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystem |
| food chain | series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy. |
| food web | many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| humans | these organisms have thrown the oxygen/carbon cycle off balance |
| oxygen | this is used by consumers after producers give it off as a waste product of photosynthesis |
| water cycle | this cycle is driven by the sun |
| exhale | this is how humans return water vapor to the environment |
| primary succession | this is when a community develops and changes for the very first time, or from "scratch" |
| secondary succession | this is when a community changes over time after being "distrubed" |
