Vocabulary Terms
These use sunlight to make their own food
Producers
The green substance in plants that absorbs energy from sunlight.
Chlorophyll
The name we give to any non-living part of an ecosystem
abiotic factor
Producers make their own energy from this source.
Sun or Sunlight
The name given to all populations living in an area
Community
These break down dead organisms into simpler substances
Decomposers
Plants absorb this and then turn it into oxygen.
Carbon Dioxide
The part of the Earth that receives the most sunlight
equator
Insects and elephants are both considered to be this type of consumer.
Primary consumer
This is the material in soil that is formed by the breakdown of plant and animal remains.
Humus
These eat both producers and consumers
Omnivores
These anchor plants in the ground and absorb water from the soil.
Roots
What helps keep plant cells rigid, and also helps to transport minerals and nutrients throughout the plant.
Water
This shows all the food chains in an ecosystem and how they overlap.
Food Web
Sunlight helps plants turn water and carbon dioxide into what two products?
Sugar (or food)
and
Oxygen
Living things that hunt and kill other living things for food
predators
These are tubes inside the stem that carries water and minerals to the other parts of a plant.
Xylem
Organisms that become less active when temperatures change a great deal are said to become this.
dormant
There are no photosynthetic organisms in this area of the ocean, as no sunlight penetrates this ocean zone known by what name?
midnight zone
This role of an organism includes everything the organism does and everything it needs.
Niche
These are usually the top predators in a food chain
Tertiary consumers
What we call the loss of water from a plant's leaves
Transpiration
This is the scale that scientists use to measure the acidity or alkalinity of soil.
pH scale
The name given to the role fungi play in an ecosystem
Scavengers
The name given to the way in which water is pulled up through the xylem
Capillary Action