| A | B |
|---|
| Abiotic Factor | A nonliving part of an ecosystem (water, air, rocks, dirt, etc.). |
| Acid Rain | Moisture that falls to earth after being mixed with pollution in the air. |
| Amphibian | An animal capable of living on both land and water. |
| Aquatic Ecosystem | An ecosystem found within water (either saltwater or freshwater). |
| Biome | One of Earth’s largest ecosystems, with its own kind of climate, soil, plants, and animals. |
| Biotic Factor | A living part of an ecosystem. |
| Carbon Cycle | The continuous exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen among living things. |
| Carnivore | An animal that eats other animals as food. |
| Climax Community | The final stage of succession of an area (unless a major change happens). |
| Commensalism | A relationship between 2 kinds of organisms that benefits one, without harming the other. |
| Community | All the living things in an ecosystem. |
| Competitors | Organisms living in the same area that need to use the same resources (water, food, space). |
| Consumers | An organism that does not produce its own food. It requires energy from an outside source, so it consumes a producer or another consumer. |
| Continental Shelf | The part of a content that is submerged in relatively shallow sea. |
| Deciduous Forest | A forest biome with many kinds of trees that lose their leaves each year. |
| Decomposers | An organism whose function involves the recycling of nutrients by performing the natural process of decomposition as it feeds on dead or decaying organisms. Examples of decomposers are fungi and bacteria that obtain their nutrients from dead plant or animal material. They break down cells of dead plants and animals into simpler substances, which become organic nutrients available to the ecosystem. |
| Desert | A sandy or rocky biome, with little precipitation and little plant life. |
| Ecological Succession | The gradual replacement of one community by another. |
| Ecology | The study of how living and nonliving things interact. |
| Ecosystem | All the living and non-living things in an environment, including their interactions with each other. |
| Endangered Species | A species that is in danger of becoming extinct. |
| Energy Pyramid | A graphical model that is shaped like a pyramid to show how the energy flows through a food chain, how the amount of energy is decreasing and becoming less available for organisms as it enters each trophic level, and how much of the energy in the ecosystem is lost to the atmosphere as heat. |
| Extinct | A species that has died out completely. |
| Food Chain | The path of energy from one organism to another (it begins with the sun → producer → consumer → ends with a decomposer). |
| Food Web | The overlapping food chains in an ecosystem. |
| Fossil Fuel | A fuel formed from decay of ancient life; forms deep underground over millions of years. |
| Fresh Water | Water that does not contain salt. 3% of the world’s water is freshwater. |
| Grassland | A biome that receives too much rain to be a desert, but not enough rain to support tree growth. |
| Grasslands | A biome where grasses, not trees, are the main plant life. |
| Habitat | The place where a plant or animal naturally lives or grows. |
| Herbivore | An animal that eats plants, algae, and other producers. |
| Humus | Decayed plants or animal material in the soil. |
| Individual | One animal of a species. |
| Interconnected | The idea that life in an ecosystem is all connected, and a change in one area of the ecosystem will cause changes in other areas of the ecosystem. |
| Lake | A body of freshwater. Lakes are fed by rivers, creeks, and/or springs. |
| Limiting Factor | Anything that controls the growth or survival of a population (a limited amount of food can support only a limited amount of organisms). |
| Mutualism | A relationship between 2 kinds of organisms that benefits both organisms. |
| Niche | The role/job of an organism in a community. |
| Nitrogen Cycle | The continuous trapping of nitrogen gas into compounds in the soil and its return to the air. |
| Nonrenewable Resources | A resource that cannot be replaced within a short period of time. |
| Ocean | A large body of saltwater. 97% of the water available on earth is saltwater. |
| Omnivore | An animal that eats both plants and animals. |
| Ozone Layer | A layer of ozone gas in the atmosphere that screens out much of the sun’s UV rays. |
| Parasitism | A relationship between 2 organisms, where one lives in or on another organisms and harms that organism. |
| Photosynthesis | The process plants use to make their food (energy) using energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, water, and chlorophyll found within their cells. |
| Pioneer Community | The first community living in a once lifeless area. |
| Pioneer Species | The first species living in an otherwise lifeless area. |
| Pollution | Anything that has a negative affect on the Earth and its organisms. |
| Pond | A body of fresh water. Ponds are smaller than lakes and are usually formed by runoff. |
| Population | All the individuals of one species in one given area. |
| Predator | An animal that hunts other animals for food. |
| Prey | An animal that is hunted for food. |
| Producers | An organism able to make its own food from the sun’s energy. |
| Rainforest | A biome having great diversity of plant and animal life. |
| Renewable Resources | A resource that can be replaced within a short amount of time. |
| Salt marsh | An area of coastal grassland that is regularly flooded by seawater. |
| Scavenger | A meat-eating animal that feeds on the remains of dead animals. |
| Smog | A mixture of smoke and fog. |
| Solar Energy | Energy from the sun. |
| Symbiosis | A relationship between 2 animals that lasts over time. |
| Taiga | A cool forest biome of conifers in the supper northern hemisphere. |
| Terrestrial Ecosystem | An ecosystem found outside of water. |
| Threatened Species | A species that is in danger of becoming an endangered species. |
| Tropical Rain Forest | A hot biome near the equator, with much rainfall and a wide variety of plant life. |
| Tundra | Large, treeless plain in the arctic region, where the ground is frozen all year long. |
| Water Cycle | The continuous movement of water between the Earth’s surface and the air by changing from a liquid to a gas (evaporation) and back from a gas to a liquid (condensation). |
| Wind Energy | Energy from the wind’s power. |
