Trophic Levels & Energy
This level contains organisms that make their own food through photosynthesis.
What is the producer level?
A relationship where both organisms benefit.
What is mutualism?
This process in the water cycle causes clouds to form.
What is condensation?
When more individuals move into a population.
What is immigration?
This shows one path of energy transfer in an ecosystem.
What is a food chain?
This is the main reason why energy decreases as it moves up trophic levels.
What is energy lost as heat?
A bird nesting in a tree without harming it is this type of relationship.
What is commensalism?
Plants use this process to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
What is photosynthesis?
This term describes the number of one type of species living in an area.
What is a population?
This more complex model shows many overlapping energy paths.
What is a food web?
This type of organism eats only plants.
What is a herbivore?
This type of consumer eats both plants and animals.
What is an omnivore?
The organisms responsible for converting atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use.
What are nitrogen-fixing bacteria?
A plateau in population growth is caused by this balance.
What is equal birth and death rates?
These organisms break down dead material and recycle nutrients.
What are decomposers?
The final consumer in a food chain or web, which has no natural predators.
What is an apex predator?
When a parasite harms a host, this type of symbiotic relationship is occurring.
What is parasitism?
This process returns water to Earth’s surface from the atmosphere.
What is precipitation?
A decrease in a predator population often causes this to happen to its prey.
What is an increase in prey population?
The role of three-spine sticklebacks in the food web could change dramatically if their population drops.
What are predator-prey dynamics (or trophic impacts)?
This law explains why matter is recycled and not destroyed in an ecosystem.
What is the Law of Conservation of Mass?
Invasive species are harmful because they do this to native species.
What is compete for resources?
Carbon is added to the atmosphere through this process, common in fires and respiration.
What is combustion or respiration?
The kind of factor that could include drought, lack of food, or disease.
What is a limiting factor?
A dramatic increase in primary consumers could cause this to happen to producers.
What is a population decline due to overgrazing?