Key words in Ecology Bradley Sansom

Habitat  A habitat is the natural home or environment to an animal, plant or organism. There are many habitats in the world with different ranges of animals, such as: fish and crustaceans- sea/river, monkey, snails and tropical birds. Habitat change can occur when a drought, disease, fire or a natural disaster happens, they sometimes could be man made (pollution).

Community A community is a group of people living in the same place, this could be a group of people believing in the same thing, such as nun's or a group of people attracted and based around one place such as London. However communities can be small and not recognised to the general public, these could be simply a group of people in a settle all working with each other or a nanny's knitting club. Most jobs are associated to a community.

Consumer A consumer is an animal that feeds on other animals or plants. Every animal is a consumer but not all animal gets consumed.

Producer The producer is at the start of the food chain and is usually a plant of some sort. The producer supports the rest of the food chain and if the producer was taken out, everything in the food chain would cease to exist, this is the most important part of the food chain.

Carnivore A carnivore is an animal that lives on a diet of only meat, such as a lion or a dog.

Herbivore A herbivore is an animal that just lives on vegetation and eats no meat what so ever and is technically a vegetarian.

Predator  A predator is animal that hunts down other animals (prey), they are always carnivores. Predators are near the top of the food chain but some predators may also be prey at the same time.

Prey Prey is an animal that gets hunted by a predator, these can be any type of animal, from an antelope to plankton, from a frog to a bird.

Omnivore An omnivore is an animal that lives on a diet of both meat and vegetation, such as a human or a pig.

Adaption Adaption is when an animal is forced to leave its habitat and relocate somewhere new, either similar, or different.

Food web A food web shows the different feeding relationship between a number of different organisms. A food web can be made up of many different food chains. Where a food chain only shows the direct feeding relationship between certain organisms, a food web shows how the organism in one chain may also be part of a different chain.

Food chain  All living things need food to give them the energy to grow and move. A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. It shows who is eating who. Its like the human cycle which explains how each thing's develops yet the food chain however doesn’t cycle around again. This is because once the chain finish's it is the end and you go straight back to the beginning which is photosynthesis. The food chain starts with the producer and ends with a predator.  The difference between a food chain and food web is that a food chain is a single line of organisms, where each is preceded by something that it consumes and is followed by something that consumes it. A food web branches out in all directions with arrows pointing from organisms to any number of organisms that consume it.

Photosynthesis Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis feeds the producer, so it is very important to the food chain.

Top consumer A top consumer is an animal that is at the top of the food chain. It is a predator. They are usually not prey, like a lion or a shark.

Trophic The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. The word trophic derives from the Greek τροφή (trophē) referring to food or feeding. A food chain represents a succession of organisms that eat another organism and are, in turn, eaten themselves. The number of steps an organism is from the start of the chain is a measure of its trophic level. Food chains start at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, move to herbivores at level 2, predators at level 3 and typically finish with carnivores or apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form a one-way flow, or a food "web." Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.

QUIZ TIME! :D

1. What is the organism at the top of the food chain? 2. Describe Trophic… 3. Why might an animal have to change his habitat? 4. What is the difference between a food web and a food chain? 5. What is an omnivore? 6. What organism is generally the producer? 7. What relationship does the predator and the prey have? 8. Why is the producer so important to the food chain?

1. The top consumer 2. The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. 3. Disaster/lack of food 4. The difference between a food chain and food web is that a food chain is a single line of organisms, where each is preceded by something that it consumes and is followed by something that consumes it. A food web branches out in all directions with arrows pointing from organisms to any number of organisms that consume it. 5. An omnivore is an animal that eats both meat and vegetation. 6. A plant 7. The predator eats the prey 8. The producer is so important because it feeds the first lot of animals, then those animals get eaten by some animals and so on…so if it wasn’t for the producer, the other animals would slowly die from hunger…cruel.

THANK YOU! :D