| A | B |
|---|
| photosynthesis | when a plant uses sunlight to make sugar molecules |
| producer | makes its own food (plants, algae also called autotrophs) |
| consumer | organism gets their energy from eating other organisms (also called heterotrophs) |
| decomposer | consumer gets food from breaking down dean organisms |
| cellular respiration | taking in oxygen and food (sugars) and producing carbon dioxide, water and energy |
| food chain | sequence of energy transferred from one organism to the next (straight line) |
| food web | shows many feeding relationships possible in ecosystem (lots of food chains) |
| trophic level | each step of energy transfer in food chain |
| carbon cycle | process by which carbon is cycled through the atmosphere, land, water, and organisms |
| nitrogen-fixing bacteria | bacteria on nodules of plants (legumes) that take N from atmosphere and make usable for plants as ammonia |
| nitrogen cycle | process where N cycles through atmosphere, bacteria and other organisms |
| phosphorus cycle | cycle moving Phosphorus between environment and organisms and back again (rocks, land, organisms, ocean) |
| ecological succession | gradual process of change and replacement of some or all species of a community |
| primary succession | type of succession occurs on surface where no ecosystem exsisted before |
| secondary succession | succession that occurs in ecosystems disturbed by humans, animals or natrual processes (floods, earthquakes, etc) |
| pioneer species | first organism to colonize any newly available area and start ecological succession (mosses and grasses) |
| climax community | final and stable community |
