Trophic pyramids & Food chains

Autotroph

Organisms that capture their energy from nonliving sources such as sunlight.

Carnivore

Organisms that capture their energy from consuming animal matter.

Detritivore

Organisms that capture their energy from helping break down decaying organic materials.

Herbivore

Organisms that capture their energy from consuming plant materials.

Heterotroph

Organism captures its energy by eating other organisms.

Omnivore

Organisms that capture their energy from consuming plant and animal matter.

Trophic level

A collection of like organisms within a food hierarchy.

Producer

An organism that produces its own food and serves as the caloric base of an ecosystem.

Primary consumer

An organism that primarily feeds on producers within the ecosystem such as grass.

Predator

An organism that relies on eating other organisms for food.

Parasite

An organism that lives on or in another organism and gets food and protection from them.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which two organisms mutually benefit from one another.

Secondary consumer

An organism that primarily feeds on herbivores within the ecosystem.

Tertiary consumer

An organism that primarily feeds on herbivores as well as some predators within the ecosystem.

10% rule

When energy is passed from one trophic level to the next, only 10% of that energy will be passed on.

Tropic pyramid

A hierarchical representation of how both energy and nutrients pass between organisms in an ecosystem.

Food chain

A model that shows a single path for energy flow in an ecosystem.

Food web

A model that shows the complex network of pathways that energy flows within an ecosystem.

Biomass

Total mass of living organisms that exists within a single step within a food hierarchy.

Matter

Anything that takes up space and has mass.

Nutrient

A chemical substance that living organisms obtain from the environment that is needed to carry out living processes.

Prey

An organism that is eaten by another for food.

Host

An organism that provides a benefit to another organism which causes harm in return.

Commensalism

A symbiotic relationship between two organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected.