| A | B |
|---|
| community | all animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms thats live together |
| habitat | the place where a community lives |
| ecosystem | community and habitat |
| ecology | the study ofthe interactions of living organisms with one anther and with their physical environment |
| producers | the organisms that first capture the energy |
| consumers | obtain their energy-storing molecules by comsuming plants or other animals |
| trophic level | composed of organisms with same number of comsumption "steps" |
| food chain | simple linear progression of food energy |
| food web | complicated path of energy flow |
| herbivores | animals that eat plants |
| carnivores | animals who eat herbivores |
| omnivores | anmials that eat both plants and animals |
| detritivores/decomposers | obtain energy from the organic wastes produced by all trophic levels |
| primary productivity | total amount of light energy converted to organic compounds in a given area per unit of time |
| net primary productivity | total amount of energy fixed by photosynthesis per unit of time minus that used by metabolic activities |
| biomass | total weight of all ecosystem organisms |
| cycling | constant reuse |
| evaporation | water vapor escaping the atmoshere from heat |
| transpiration | evaporation from leaf surfaces |
| fossil fuels | coal or oil |
| nitrogen fixation | process that breaks the nitrogen triple bond and binds nitrogen atoms to hydrogen |
| eutrophication | rapid, uncontrolled grouwth caused by excessive nutrients in an aquatic ecosystem |
