1. Cycle of Matter/Flow of Energy Vocabulary
7th Grade Science

2. Ecosystem
All the living and nonliving things that interact in an area.

3. Biotic Factors
a living part of an ecosystem

4. Abiotic Factors
All of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem

5. Habitat
The place where an organism lives and that provides the things the organism needs

6. Species
A group of similar organisms whose members can mate with one another and produce fertile offspring

7. Niche
An organism’s particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes its living

8. Producers
An organism that can make its own food

9. Consumers
An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms

10. Herbivore
An animal that eats only plants

11. Carnivore
An animal that eats only other animals

12. Omnivore
An animal that eats both plants and animals.

13. Scavenger
A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms

14. Decomposer
An organism that breaks down large molecules from

15. Food chain
A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy

16. Food web
The pattern of overlapping food chains in an ecosystem

17. Energy pyramid
A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web

18. Biome
A group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms

19. Biomass
Matter formed by plants or animals that is used as a fuel, such as wood or dung.

20. Compost bin
Made up of discarded fruit and vegetable material, yard waste, and other plant materials

21. Autotroph
Primary producers

22. Heterotroph
An organism that obtains the energy it needs by feeding on other organisms

23. Trophic levels
The position an organisms occupies in a food chain

24. Radiant Energy
Light energy that ravels in waves and supplies the earth with almost all of our energy.

25. Predator
A carnivore that hunts and kills other animals for food and that has adaptations that help it capture the animals it preys upon

26. Evaporation
Is the process in which liquid water changes into invisible water vapor.

27. Denitrification
Is the process where nitrogen compounds are turned back into atmospheric nitrogen.

28. Matter
Anything that has mass and takes up space

29. Condensation
Is the process in which water vapor changes into liquid water.

30. Nitrogen fixing bacteria
Are bacteria that take atmospheric nitrogen and change it  into useful nitrogen compounds that plant and animals can use.

31. Transpiration
Water vapor is released to the air from the leaves of plants.  

32. Prey
An animal that a predator feeds upon

33. Precipitation
Occurs when water or a form of ice falls from the atmosphere to Earth’s surface.