Ecology and Ecosystems Vocabulary

Autotroph

• Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food from inorganic compounds; also called a producer

Producer

• Organism that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic compounds; also called an autotroph

Heterotroph

• Organism that relies on other organisms for their energy and food supply; also called a consumer

Consumer

• Organism that relies on other organisms for its energy and food; also called heterotroph

Herbivore

• Heterotroph that obtains energy by only eating plants

Carnivore

• Heterotroph that obtains energy by eating animals

Omnivore

• Heterotroph that obtains energy by eating both plants and animals

Decomposer

• Heterotroph that breaks down organic matter

Food Chain

• A series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten

Food Web

• Links all the food chains in an ecosystem together

Trophic Level

• Each step in a food chain or food web; first level is producers, then consumers, which make up second, third, and higher levels

Ecological Pyramid

• A diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or web; 3 types: energy, biomass, and pyramids of numbers

• The energy/biomass starts at 100% for the producers with only about 10 percent of that energy transfers to organisms at the next trophic level

Biotic Factors

• Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem

• Including birds, trees, mushrooms, and bacteria, etc.

Abiotic Factors

• Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems

• Temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, nutrient availability, soil type, sunlight, etc.

Predation

• An interaction in which one organism (predator) captures and feeds on another organism (prey)

• Predator Prey

Symbiosis

• Any relationship in which two species live closely together

Mutualism

• Both species benefit from the relationship

Commensalism

• One member of the relationship benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed

Parasitism

• One orgasm lives on or inside another organism and harms it

Thermal Energy

• Heat; the total amount of kinetic energy due to the random motion of atoms or molecules in a body of matter; energy at its most random form; with each energy transfer from ATP, a bit of energy slipped off into the surroundings as thermal energy