| A | B |
|---|
| Saprophytes | include non green plants, fungi, and the decay bacteria that consume decaying organic matter and recycle its chemials for use by other living things |
| Herbivores | animals that use only plant matter for food |
| Carnivores | animals that consume the bodies of other animals for food |
| omnivores | small group of organisms that eat both plant an animal matter as regular parts of their diets |
| symbiosis | term used to describe such relationships |
| commensalism | form of symbiosis in which one organism is benefited while its commensalistic partner is neither harmed nor helped |
| mutualism | form of symbiosis in which both organisms in the relationship benefit |
| parasitism | form of symbiosis in which one organism in the relationship benefits while the other is harmed |
| producer | are the green plants and algae in the community responsible for trapping the sun's radiant energy and using it to manufacture organic compounds that are used for their own comsumption of animals |
| decomposers | include saprophytic fungi and bacteria responsible for breaking down the complex structure of the bodies of living things into simpler forms that can be used by other living things into simpler forms that can be used by other living things |
| secondary consumers | carnivores are known as this because they do not tap plant energy directly but obtain it through their consumption of primary consumer organisms |
| primary consumers | herbivores are known as this because they are the first consumers to tap the energy trapped by the producers |
| scavengers | eat dead bodies of animals already dead |
