| A | B |
|---|
| Acid Rain | Moisture that falls to earth after being mixed with pollution in the air. |
| Aquatic Ecosystem | An ecosystem found within water (either saltwater or freshwater). |
| Biotic Factor | A living part of an ecosystem. |
| Carnivore | An animal that eats other animals as food. |
| Commensalism | A relationship between 2 kinds of organisms that benefits one, without harming the other. |
| Competitors | Organisms living in the same area that need to use the same resources (water, food, space). |
| Continental Shelf | The part of a content that is submerged in relatively shallow sea. |
| 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. |
| Ecological Succession | The gradual replacement of one community by another. |
| Ecosystem | All the living and non-living things in an environment, including their interactions with each other. |
| 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. |
| Food Chain | The path of energy from one organism to another (it begins with the sun → producer → consumer → ends with a decomposer). |
| Fossil Fuel | A fuel formed from decay of ancient life; forms deep underground over millions of years. |
| Grassland | A biome that receives too much rain to be a desert, but not enough rain to support tree growth. |
| Habitat | The place where a plant or animal naturally lives or grows. |
| Humus | Decayed plants or animal material in the soil. |
| 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. |
| 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). |
| Niche | The role/job of an organism in a community. |
| Nonrenewable Resources | A resource that cannot be replaced within a short period of time. |
| Omnivore | An animal that eats both plants and animals. |
| Parasitism | A relationship between 2 organisms, where one lives in or on another organisms and harms that organism. |
| Pioneer Community | The first community living in a once lifeless area. |
| Pollution | Anything that has a negative affect on the Earth and its organisms. |
| Population | All the individuals of one species in one given area. |
| Prey | An animal that is hunted for food. |
| Rainforest | A biome having great diversity of plant and animal life. |
| Salt marsh | An area of coastal grassland that is regularly flooded by seawater. |
| Smog | A mixture of smoke and fog. |
| Symbiosis | A relationship between 2 animals that lasts over time. |
| Terrestrial Ecosystem | An ecosystem found outside of water. |
| Tropical Rain Forest | A hot biome near the equator, with much rainfall and a wide variety of plant life. |
| 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). |
