Parts of an EcosystemRelation-shipsNutritionChanges in an EcosystemEnergy

Any organism that performs photosynthesis

Green Plants (or autotrophs or producers)

Any organism that must obtain food and eat to obtain nutrients.

Consumer

Any organism that causes dead organisms to decay, recycling nutrients back into the soil.

Decomposers (or saprophytes)

Term meaning “Organic material” that is present in an ecosystem. This type of factor is either an organism (dead or alive), or some product of an organism (like feces or tree sap).

Biotic Factor

Three examples of Abiotic Factors that could be found in an ecosystem.

Water, Carbon Dioxide, Oxygen, Temperature, Terrain, etc.

Animal that hunts for its food.

Predator

Animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal.

Prey

Type of symbiosis where one organism benefits by harming another organism (tapeworms, lice, etc)

Parasitism

Type of symbiosis where both organisms benefit from their close interaction.

Mutualism

The type of symbiosis where one organism benefits from a close interaction and the other organism is unaffected.

Commensalism

What do “Producers” produce?

Glucose (food)

Primary consumers in a food chain must always eat what kind of food?

Green Plants

Term used to describe animals that eat both plants and other animals

Omnivore

The term used to describe animals that eat producers.

Herbivores

Term used to describe a complicated pattern of overlapping food chains.

Food web

An organism’s role in the ecosystem

Niche

Process of change that occurs in an ecosystem as new plant and animal life enter

Succession

Term used to describe a stable ecosystem that has completed succession

Climax Community

Term used to describe a foreign species that enters a new ecosystem and has little competition

Alien or Exotic Species

Failure of a species to adapt to a changing ecosystem will result in the ___________ of that species

Extinction

All of the energy that is present in an ecosystem comes from this source

Sun

Type of organism that can transform light energy into chemical energy

Green Plants

Percentage of calories lost at each step up on the food chain.

90% (10% is passed on)

How energy is lost as it is transferred to the next level of the food chain.

Metabolism of the organism that is eaten and through heat

These two types of organisms must be present in order for an ecosystem to be self-sustaining.

Producers and Decomposers