| A | B |
|---|
| an organism that can make its own food | producer |
| an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms | consumer |
| a consumer that eats only plants | herbivore |
| a consumer that eats only animals | carnivore |
| a consumer that eats noth plants and animals | omnivore |
| a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms | scavenger |
| an organism that breaks down chemicals from wastes and dead organisms, and returns important materials to the coil and water | decomposer |
| a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy | food chain |
| the pattern of overlapping food chains in an ecosystem | food web |
| a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web | energy pyramid |
| the continuous process by which water moves from Earth's surface to the atmosphere and back | water cycle |
| the process by which molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to a gas | evaporation |
| the process by which a gas changes to a liquid | condensation |
| rain, snow, sleet, or hail | precipitation |
| the process of changing gas into a usable form | nitrogen fixation |
| the study of where organisms live | biogeography |
| the very slow motion of the continents | continental drift |
| the movement of organisms from one place to another | dispersal |
| species that are carried to a new location by people | exotic species |
| the typical weather pattern in an area over a long period of time | climate |
| a group of land ecosystems with similar climates and organisms | biome |
| a leafy roof formed by tall trees | canopy |
| a layer of shorter plants that grow in the shade of a forest canopy | understory |
| an area that receives less than 25 centimeters of precipitation per year | desert |
| an area populated by grasses and other nonwoody plants | grassland |
| a grassland close to the equator that receives as much as 120 centimeters of rain per year | savanna |
| a tree that sheds its leaves and grows new ones each year | deciduous tree |
| a tree that produces its seeds in cones and that has needle-shaped leaves | coniferous tree |
| an extremely cold, dry biome | tundra |
| soil that is frozen all year | permafrost |
| a habitat in which the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean | estuary |
| the area between the highest high-tide line and lowest low-tide line | intertidal zone |
| the region of shallow ocean water over the continental shelf | neritic zone |
