Vocabulary - Ch. 5
Carnivore - Consumers that eat only other consumers (flesh-eaters)
Cellular respiration - the process of breaking down food to yield energy. It is the mirror process of photosynthesis.
C6H12+6O2--------------- 6CO2 + 6H2O + energy
sugar + oxygen YEILDS carbon dioxide + water + energy
climax community - the community that is eventually formed if land is left undisturbed
consumer - organisms that get their energy from eating other organisms
decomposer - consumers that get thier food by breaking down dead organisisms, causing them to rot
food chain - is a sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another
food web - shows many of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem; contains many inter-linking food chains
herbiviore - consumers that eat only producers
nitrogen-fixing bacteria - organisms that can use nitrogen gas directly from the atmosphere, take nitrogen gas from the air and transform, or "fix" it into a form that ecosystem can use; found within roots of a few plants such as bean, peas, clover and alder trees
ominvore - consumers that eat both plants and other consumers
pioneers - the first organisms to colonize any newly available area and start the process of suceession
preipitation - water returns to the Earth in this form, when the clouds meet cool air; raub, sleet, or snow
primary succession - succession that occurs on surfaces where no ecosystem has exixted before
producer - orgainism that makes it's own food through the process of photosyntesis
secondary succession - succession that occurs where an ecosystem has exisited before
succession - a regular pattern of changes over time in the types of species in a community
trophic level - each step in the trasfer of energy through an ecosystem
water cycle - process in which the water moves between the atmosphere and back down to the Earth's surface
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