These are the nonliving factors of the environment.
Abiotic
This is an organism that obtains its energy from inorganic structures or the sun.
Autotroph
This is the total amount (in mass) of all living things within a specific area.
Biomass
This is a large area that has a particular climate and a particular group of plants and animals that have adapted to the region’s enviornment.
Biome
The portion of the Earth and its atmosphere that can support life.
Biosphere
These are all these living organisms on earth.
Biotic
This is an organism that supplies matter and energy, also called autotroph.
Carnivore
These are the groups of plants and animals that interact within a community.
Community
This is an organism that relies on other organisms for its food and energy supply; also called an heterotroph.
Consumer
This is an organism that breaks down and gains organisms from dead plants.
Decomposer
This is an heterotrophic organism that consumes dead or decayed tissue and helps to recycle nutrients in an ecosystem.
Detritivore
This is the study of organisms and their interactions with the environment.
Ecology
The populations and physical (abiotic) factors with which they interact in a community
Ecosystem
This is an ecological pyramid that shows graphically the energy that is available at each trophic level in each chain.
Energy Pyramid
This is an simple path for the transfer of matter and energy through an ecosystem by eating and being eaten.
Food Chain
This is a representation of the complex linkages between food chains in a community
Food Web
This is an organism that gains energy by only eating plants.
Herbivore
This is an organism that cannot make its own food; it relies on complex organic substance for nutrition.
Heterotroph
This is an ecological pyramid that shows graphically the population of each trophic level in a food chain.
Numbers Pyramid
This is an organism obtains energy by eating both plants and animals.
Omnivore
The portion of the Earth and its atmosphere that can support life.
Photosynthesis
All the individuals in a species that live together in one place at the same time.
Population
This is an organism that supplies matter and energy; also called an autotroph
Producer
These are individuals that can breed with one another and produce fertile offspring.
Species
This is the energy needed to drive photosynthesis
Sunlight
This is an position that an organism occupies in a food chain – what it eats, and what eats it.
Trophic Level
