Ecosystems & Energy Vocab

Autotroph

An organism that makes its own food using sunlight or chemicals.

Heterotroph

An organism that gets energy by eating other organisms.

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants use sunlight

Chlorophyll

The green pigment in plants that absorbs sunlight for photosynthesis.

Cellular Respiration

The process cells use to break down food and release energy.

Ecosystem

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

Abiotic Factors

Nonliving parts of an ecosystem that affect living things.

Biotic Factors

Living or once-living parts of an ecosystem.

Producer

An organism that makes its own food from sunlight.

Consumer

An organism that eats other organisms for energy.

Herbivore

A consumer that eats only plants.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats only other animals.

Omnivore

A consumer that eats both plants and animals.

Scavenger

An animal that eats dead animals.

Decomposer

An organism that breaks down dead plants and animals into nutrients.

Food Chain

A sequence that shows how energy moves from one organism to another.

Food Web

Many connected food chains show energy flow in an ecosystem.

Energy Pyramid

A diagram that shows how energy decreases at each level in a food chain.

Trophic Level

Each step or level in a food chain or energy pyramid.

Predator

An animal that hunts and eats other animals.

Prey

An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal.

Symbiosis

A close relationship between two different species that benefits at least one.

Biome

A large region with a specific climate

Adaptation

A trait or behavior that helps an organism survive in its environment.