Energy Flow in Ecosystems
This type of organism makes its own food using sunlight through photosynthesis.
What is a producer?
This process changes water from liquid to gas using energy from the sun.
What is evaporation?
This biome is characterized by less than 25 cm of rainfall per year and extreme temperature changes.
What is a desert?
These ecosystems include streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes.
What are freshwater ecosystems?
This process, caused by overusing resources, turns once fertile land into desert-like conditions.
What is desertification?
This is the process by which energy moves through an ecosystem via food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids.
What is energy transfer?
This cycle involves nitrogen moving from the air into the soil, through living things, and back into the air or soil.
What is the nitrogen cycle?
These forests, found near the equator, are known for warm, humid weather and multiple canopy layers.
What is a tropical rain forest?
The zone of the ocean where freshwater meets saltwater, providing habitats for diverse species.
What is an estuary?
This human activity contributes 50% to the destruction of ecosystems worldwide.
What is deforestation?
This type of carnivore feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.
What is a scavenger?
The term for the process of converting free nitrogen into a usable form by bacteria.
What is nitrogen fixation?
The biome where trees shed their leaves annually and animals migrate or hibernate during winter.
What is a deciduous forest?
This ocean zone is home to creatures like giant squid and anglerfish and receives little to no sunlight.
What is the deep zone?
This phenomenon, caused by the release of greenhouse gases, leads to rising global temperatures.
What is climate change?
Only about this percentage of energy is transferred from one level to the next in an energy pyramid.
What is 10%?
This molecule, necessary for life, is recycled through processes like photosynthesis and respiration.
What is oxygen?
This extremely cold biome features permafrost and limited plant growth during short summers.
What is the tundra?
This aquatic organism produces about half of Earth’s oxygen.
What is phytoplankton?
This percentage of Earth's water is freshwater, making it vital to conserve.
What is 3%?
This term describes the interconnected network of food chains within an ecosystem, showing multiple feeding relationships.
What is a food web?
This type of precipitation forms when water droplets freeze in layers around a small nucleus of ice during updrafts in a storm cloud.
What is hail?
These grasslands near the equator receive up to 120 cm of rainfall annually and host some of Earth's largest animals.
What is a savanna?
This specific ocean zone extends from the shoreline to the edge of the continental shelf and is known for supporting coral reefs and diverse marine life.
What is the neritic zone?
This critical natural process, responsible for cleaning water, is disrupted by pollution and deforestation.
What is the water cycle?