| A | B |
|---|
| ecosystem | all of the organisms living in an area together with their physical environment |
| biotic factors | living and once living parts of an ecosystem, including all plants and animals |
| abiotic factors | nonliving parts of the ecosystem, including air, water, rocks, sand, light and temperature |
| organism | an individual living thing |
| species | a group of organisms that can mate to produce fertile offspring |
| population | all the members of the same species that live in the same place at the same time |
| community | a group of various species that live in the same place and interact with each other |
| habitat | the place an organism lives |
| producer | an organism that makes its own food through photosynthesis or chemical sources. Also called autotroph |
| consumer | organism that get its energy by eating producers or other consumers. Also called heterotroph |
| herbivore | plant (producer) eater |
| carnivore | flesh (consumer) eater |
| omnivore | eats both plants and flesh (producers and consumers) |
| decomposer | breaks down dead organisms and returns nutrients to the soil, water, and air |
| food chain | a sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another organism |
| food web | includes multiple food chains linked together |
| trophic level | step through which energy is transferred in a food chain |
| energy pyramid | illustrates the loss of energy from one trophic level to the next trophic level |
| biome | a large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plants and animal communities |
| climate | refers to the weather conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and winds, in an area over a long period of time |
