| A | B |
|---|
| photosynthesis | the process by which a cell captures energy in sunlight and uses it to make food |
| autotroph | an organism that makes its own food is called a producer or this |
| heterotroph | an organism that cannot make its own food is called a consumer or this |
| chlorophyll | the main pigment for photosynthesis in chloroplasts |
| producer | an organism that can make its own food |
| consumer | an organims that cannot make its own food and obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| herbivore | consumers that only eat plants |
| carnivore | consumers that eat only animals |
| omnivore | consumers that eat both plants and animals |
| scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| decomposer | breaks down biotic wastes and dead organisms and returns the raw material to the ecosystem |
| food chain | a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy |
| food web | consists of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| evaporation | the process by which molecules of liquid water absorb energy and change to a gas |
| condensation | the process by which a gas changes to a liquid |
| precipitation | water in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to Earth |
| nitrogen fixation | the process of changing free nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen |
| biome | a group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms |
| climate | the average annual temperature and amount of precipitation |
| desert | an area that receives less than 25 cm of rain per year |
| rain forest | forests in which large amounts of rain fall year round |
| emergent layer | the tallest layer of the rain forest which receives the most sunlight and can reach up to 70 meters |
| canopy | underneath trees up to 50 meters tall, forming a leafy roof |
| understory | a layer of shorter trees and vines, around 15 meters high |
| grassland | an area populated mostly by grasses and othe nonwoody plants |
| savanna | an area that receives as much as 120 centimeters of rain each year |
| deciduous tree | trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year |
| boreal forest | dense forests found in the upper regions of the Northern Hemisphere |
| coniferous tree | trees that produce their seeds in cones and have leaves shaped like needles |
| tundra | extremely cold and dry area |
| permafrost | soil in the tundra that is frozen |
