Ecosystems: Vocabulary SOL 4.5

Behavioral Adaptation Changes an animal makes to how it behaves or acts that help it meet a life need Example = migration

Carnivore Consumer that eats other animals (meat) Examples = Frogs, wolves, vultures, hyenas

Community Populations of species that live in the same place at the same time together

Consumer Gets its energy from eating (consuming) other living things Example = houses, humans, wolves

Decomposer Consumer that breaks down dead plants and animals Examples = bacteria and fungi

Ecosystem All the populations and the nonliving components in an environment that interact with each other.

Food Chain The path energy takes as animals eat each other Example = daffodil  rabbit  to fox

Food Web All of the food chains in a community

Habitat Place or kind of place in which an animal or plant naturally lives

Herbivore Consumer that eats plants Example = elephants and grasshoppers

Niche The function that an organism performs in the food web of that community. A niche also includes everything else the organism does or needs in its environment.

Omnivore Consumer that eats both plants and animals Examples = humans and bears

Physical (Structural ) Adaptation Changes to an animal’s body that helps it meet a life need Example = beak shape

Population All the organisms of the same species that live in the same place at the same time

Predator Carnivores that hunt other animals Examples = frogs and wolves

Producer Makes its own food using the sun’s energy Example = oak tree and sunflower

Scavenger Carnivores that eat dead animals Example = vultures and hyenas