| A | B |
|---|
| producer | an organisma that makes its own food |
| consumer | an organism that gets energy by feeding on other organisms |
| herbivore | consumer that eats only plants |
| carnivore | consumer that eats only meat |
| omnivore | consumer that eats plants and meat |
| scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| decomposer | an organism that breaks down wastes and dead organimsms |
| food chain | a series of events in which one organism eats another |
| food web | pattern of overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| water cycle | the continuous process by which water moves from earth's surface to the atmosphere and back |
| evaporation | process by which molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to the gas state |
| condensation | process by which a gas changes to a liquid |
| precipitation | rain, snow, sleet, or hail |
| nitrogen fixation | the process of changing free nitrogen gas into a usable form |
| nodules | bumps on the roots of certain plants that house nitrogen fixing bacteria |
| biogeography | study of where organisms live |
| continental drift | the very slow motion of the continents |
| dispersal | the movement of organisms from one place to another |
| native species | species that have naturally evolved in an area |
| exotic species | species that are carried to a new location by people |
| climate | typical weather patten in an area over a long period of time |
| biome | a group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms |
| canopy | a leafy roof formed by tall trees |
| understory | a layer of shorter plants that grow in the shade of a forest canopy |
| desert | an area that receives less than 25 cm of precipitation a year |
| grassland | an area populated by greasses that gets 25 to 75 cm of rain eache year |
| savanna | a grassland close to the equator |
| deciduous trees | trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year |
| hibernation | a low energy state similar to sleep |
| coniferous trees | trees that produce their seeds in cones and have needle shaped leaves |
| tundra | an extremely cold, dry biome |
| permafrost | soil that is frozen all year |
| estuary | a habitat in which the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean |
| intertidal zone | area between the highest high tide line and lowest low tide line |
| neritic zone | region of shallow ocean water over the continental shelf |
| succession | series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time |
| pioneer species | the first species to populate an area |
| primary succession | the changes that occur in an area where no ecosystem had existed |
| secondary succession | changes that occur after a disturbance in an ecosystem |
