| A | B |
|---|
| ecosystem | area in which living things interact with each other and the environment |
| biotic factors | the living part of an ecosystem |
| abiotic factors | the non-living factors of an ecosystem such as soil, air and water |
| community | two or more groups of differentt organisms that live and interact in the same area |
| population | a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular area |
| niche | the specific role of an organism in its habitat |
| food chain | a sequence of organisms through which food energy passes |
| producers | an organism that can make its own food |
| consumers | an organism that eats other living things |
| energy pyramid | a diagram showing the amount of energy available at each level of a food chain |
| evaporation | the process by which heat energy changes a liquid to a gas |
| condensation | the process in which a gas changes phase to a liquid |
| precipitation | moistuere in the atmosphere that condenses and falls to the earth as sleet, snow, hail, or rain |
| nitrogen fixation | the bacterial conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to usable compunds |
| succession | the replacement of one community by another over a period of time |
| climate | average weather patterns from year to year |
| biomes | a large community of plants and animals whose makeup is determined by soil and climate |
| tropical | a warm climate with little variation in temperature during the year; most tropical climates have a lot of rainfall |
| polar climate | a climate with a long cold season and a short warm season |
| temperate climate | a climate with a cold season and a warm season of nearly equal lengths |
| tundra | the vast, treeless plains of arctic and subarctic climates |
| deciduous | referring to trees that loose their leaves annually |
| coniferous | referring to trees that bear their seeds in cones and do not shed their leaves at one time |
| grasslands | a biome that is characterized by grasses having hot summers, cold winters, rich soil, and unevenly distributed rainfall |
| deserts | a biome that receives less rain than 25cm of rainfall per year and has a greater rate of evaporation than rainfall |
| marine | referring to the ocean |
| natural resources | material from the environment that people use to carry on their daily lives |
| renewable resources | a natural resource, such as trees or soil, that can be replaced by natural cycles or processes |
| nonrenewable resources | a natural resource, such as oil, or gas, that can not be replaced by natural processes |
| fossil fuels | energy sources formed from the burried remains of decayed plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago |
| solar energy | energy from the sun |
| biomass energy | energy that is released when plants and products are burned |
| geothermal energy | energy that comes from heat from the earths hot interior |
| nuclear energy | energy released by either the splitting arpart or the joining together of atoms of certain elements |
| smog | air pollution caused by automobile exausht, burning coal, or by other means, resulting in air that is unhealthy to breathe |
| acid rain | highly acidic droplets formed when gasses produced by the burning of fossil fuels combine with moisture in the clouds |
| hazardous wastes | waste substances that are very harmful to humans and other organisms |
