| A | B |
|---|
| Carnivore | Organism that obtains energy by eating animals. |
| Cellular Respiration | The set of the metabolic reactions and processes that take place in organisms? cells to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products. |
| Climax Community | An ecological term for a biological community of plants and animals which, through the process of ecological succession - the development of vegetation in an area over time - has reached a steady state. |
| Chlorophyll | The pigment which gives plants its green color and is responsible for absorption of light, allowing photosynthesis to occur. |
| Consumer | Organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food supply; also called a heterotroph. |
| Decomposer | Any of various organisms such as bacteria and fungi that return constituents of organic substances to ecological cycles by feeding on and breaking down dead organisms. |
| Food Chain | An arrangement of the organisms of an ecological community according to the order of predation in which each uses the next usually lower member as a food source. |
| Food Web | The totality of interacting food chains in an ecological community. |
| Herbivore | Organisms that obtain their food from plants or producers. |
| Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria | The process by which nitrogen is taken from its natural, relatively inert molecular form (N2) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds. |
| Omnivore | Organisms that feed on both animal and plants. |
| Pioneer species | First species to populate an area during primary succession. |
| Precipitation | A deposit on the earth of hail, mist, rain, sleet, or snow. |
| Primary Succession | Occurs in an environment in which new substrate, devoid of vegetation and usually lacking soil, is deposited. |
| Producer | Organisms that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic compounds; also called an autotroph. |
| Secondary Succession | Succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil. |
| Succession | The act or process of following in order. Gradual change in living communities that follows a disturbance. |
| Trophic Level | The feeding position in a food chain such as primary producers, herbivore, primary carnivore, etc. Step in a food chain or food web. |
| Water Cycle / hydrologic cycle | The sequence of conditions through which water passes from vapor in the atmosphere through precipitation upon land or water surfaces and ultimately back into the atmosphere as a result of evaporation and transpiration. |
