| A | B |
|---|
| biomass | the mass of dry organic material in an organism |
| biomass pyramid | an ecological pyramid that shows the amount of biomass in each trophic level; biomass generally decreases as trophic levels increase |
| consumer (or heterotroph) | organism that cannot make its own food and must get energy be eating producers or other consumers |
| decomposer (or saprotroph) | organism that breaks down dead or decaying organisms |
| detritus | organic matter that is broken down from dead organisms |
| energy pyramid | an ecological pyramid that shows how energy is passed from one trophic level to the next |
| food chain | a simple representation of how energy is passed from a producer to consumers |
| food web | a more complex representation of how energy is passed from producers to consumers in an ecosystem |
| pyramid of numbers | an ecological pyramid that shows the number of organisms in each trophic level; the number of organisms generally decreases as trophic levels increase |
| primary consumer | a consumer that eats producers (usually eats plants) |
| producer (or autotroph) | organism that makes its own food usually be using energy directly from the sun |
| scavenger | a heterotroph that eats dead animals and plants that are often leftovers from other consumers |
| secondary consumer | a consumer that eats a primary consumer |
| tertiary consumer | a consumer that eats a secondary consumer |
| top consumer (or apex predator) | animal at the end of a food chain that has no natural predators; usually a carnivore that has no natural predators |
| trophic level | each “step” in a food chain that represents how many times energy has been transferred from one organism to the next |
| trop, volv ; ex: Phototropism, Evolution | turn, change - Plants' response of turning toward light, How organisms change of time |
| ventr- ; ex: ventral | belly - Belly portion of an organims (portion of a worm that touches the ground) |
| vore ; ex: carnivore | devour - Carnivores devour meat or flesh. |
| zo ; ex: zoology | animal - Study of animals. |
| zyg ; ex: zygote, homozygous | yoke (egg + sperm) - Union of egg and sperm, Zygote receives the same genes from both egg and sperm |
