1. Biogeochemical Cycles Vocabulary

2. Law of Conservation of Mass:
matter may be transformed from one type to another, but cannot be created or destroyed.

3. Nutrient:
matter that organisms require for their life processes

4. Biogeochemical Cycle:
complex cycles displaying how nutrients circulate throughout their environment.

5. Primary producer:
organisms that produce their own food; also called an autotroph

6. Photosynthesis:
process where producers pull carbon dioxide out of their environment and combine with water in the presence of sunlight.

7. Consumer:
Organisms, mainly animals, that must eat other organisms to obtain nutrients

8. Decomposer:
an organism that breaks down and recycles nutrients from dead organisms and puts it back into the environment.

9. Cellular Respiration:
process by which organisms use oxygen to release chemical energy for sugars and release carbon dioxide and water.

10. Eutrophication:
overgrowth of algae that leads to hypoxia (low oxygen levels) in a body of water

11. Nitrogen Fixation:
conversion of nitrogen gas into ammonia

12. Biogeochemical Cycles Vocabulary Week 2

13. Carbon Source:
any activity that emits carbon dioxide.

14. Transpiration:
the evaporation of water from small pores on the underside of plant leaves.

15. Chemosynthesis:
process where producers use energy produced by inorganic chemical reactions to produce food.

16. Fossil Fuels:
natural fuel such as coal or gas formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.

17. Carbon Sink:
any natural environments ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

18. Herbivore:
a type of consumer that eats only plants.

19. Carnivore:
a type of consumer who eats other animals

20. Omnivore:
a type of consumer who eats both plants and animals.

21. Food Web:
network of food chains that shows the feeding relationships among organisms.

22. Food Chain:
a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

23. Energy Pyramid:
a graphical model used to show how the energy flows through a food chain.

24. Nitrification:
the chemical process by which ammonia is converted to nitrites