Ecosystem Basics
The living parts of an ecosystem, like animals and plants.
What is biotic?
A relationship where both species benefit.
What is mutualism?
An organism that makes its own food using sunlight.
What is a producer?
A diagram that shows one path of energy from producers to consumers.
What is a food chain?
The gradual change in ecosystems over time.
What is succession?
The non-living parts of an ecosystem, like sunlight, air, and rocks.
What is abiotic?
A relationship where one species benefits and the other is harmed.
What is parasitism?
An organism that eats other organisms for energy.
What is a consumer?
A complex diagram showing many connected food chains.
What is a food web?
The first type of succession, which begins on bare rock.
What is primary succession?
A group of organisms of the same kind that can reproduce together.
What is a species?
A relationship where one species benefits and the other is not affected.
What is commensalism?
A consumer that eats only plants.
What is a herbivore?
The process by which water moves through the environment in different forms.
What is the water cycle?
The type of succession that happens after a fire or flood.
What is secondary succession?
These are what all organisms need to survive—like food, water, and shelter.
What are basic needs?
A relationship where one organism hunts and eats another.
What is predation?
A consumer that eats both plants and animals.
What is an omnivore?
The cycle where carbon moves through the air, plants, animals, and soil.
What is the carbon cycle?
The first organisms to grow in a new or barren ecosystem.
What are pioneer species?
A large system made of biotic and abiotic parts interacting in a specific area.
What is an ecosystem?
The general term for any long-term interaction between species.
What is symbiosis?
An organism that breaks down dead material and returns nutrients to the soil.
What is a decomposer?
An organism that eats dead animals but doesn’t decompose them.
What is a scavenger?
A stable and mature ecosystem that no longer changes quickly.
What is a climax community?