| A | B |
|---|
| producers | Organisms that make their own food. |
| autotrophs | Another name for a producer. |
| consumers | Organisms that get their energy by eating other organisms, including plants and animals. |
| heterotrophs | Another name for a consumer. |
| chemosynthesis | The process that a producer in an ocean floor ecosystem uses because sunlight is not available as an energy source. |
| food chain | Shows the feeding relationship for a single chain of producers and consumers. |
| herbivores | Organisms that eat only plants. |
| carnivores | Organisms that eat only animals. |
| omnivores | Organisms that eat both plants and animals |
| detritivores | Organisms that eat dead plant and animal matter (earthworms). |
| decomposers | Detritivores that break down plant and animal matter into simpler compounds (fungi) in order to return nutrients to the ecosystem. |
| specialists | Organisms that have a very selective diet. |
| generalists | Organisms that eat a variety of different organisms. |
| trophic level | Each link in a food chain, or a level of feeding. |
| food web | A model of a complex network of feeding relationships and the related flow of energy. |
