Ecology and Energy Flow Vocabulary

Ecology and Energy Flow Vocabulary

Ecology and Energy Flow Vocabulary

Define the following terms:

1. ecology – the study of all interactions that occur within the biosphere

2. energy flow – chemical energy that flows through a food chain

3. ecosystem – all the interacting parts of a biological community and its environment

4. producers – green plants and some bacteria that carry out photosynthesis to produce

food

5.primary consumers – 1st consuming organism in a food chain, occupies the 2nd trophic

level

6. secondary consumer – 2nd consumer in a food chain, occupies the 3rd trophic level

7. tertiary consumer – “top carnivores”, occupies the 4th trophic level

8. detritivores – organisms that consume dead material and animal wastes, includes

decomposers

9. decomposers – various bacteria and fungi that break down dead materials and animal

wastes, extracting the remaining nutrients

10. scavenger – feed on the bodies of larger dead animals

11. food chains – series of organisms through which energy is passed

12. food web – feeding relationships within an ecosystem, interconnecting and

overlapping food chains

13. carnivore – an animal that consumes other species of animals

14. herbivore – an animal that consumes only plant materials

15. omnivore – animal that consumes other species of animals and plant matter

16. heterotroph – cannot make own food, depend on complex organic substances for

nutrients

17. autotroph – organism capable of making its own food from inorganic substances

using photosynthesis (green plants, algae, bacteria)

18. biosphere – the life zone of Earth, including the lower part of the atmosphere,

hydrosphere and upper part of the Earth’s crust