Science Unit 6

Terms	Definitions
ecosystem	all the living and nonliving things in an area interacting with each other.
ecology	the study of how living things and their environment interact.
abiotic factor	a NON-living part of an ecosystem.
biotic factor	a LIVING part of an ecosystem.
population	all the organisms of ONE SPECIES that live in an AREA at the same time.
community	all the POPULATIONS living in an area.
habitat	the AREA in which an organism lives.
niche	the ROLE an organism has in its ecosystem.
producers	Plants and algae produce oxygen and food from sunshine, carbon dioxide, and water (like prairie grass!)
consumers	Animals eat plants (and other animals) and give off carbon dioxide.
decomposers	Break down dead plants and animals into useful things like mineras that enrich soil.
food chain	the path of energy in food from one organism to another.
food web	the overlapping food chains in a community.
herbivore	an animal that eats plants.
carnivore	an animal that eats other animals.
omnivore	an animal that eats both plants and animals.
predator	a living thing that hunts other living things for food.
prey	a living thing that is hunted for food.
scavenger	an animal that feeds on the remains of dead animals.
energy pyramid	an illustration that shows that, as you go up from producers through consumers in a food chain, less and less energy is available because each level has used up some of the energy.
water cycle	the continuous movement of water between Earth's surface and the air, changing from liquid to gas to liquid.
carbon cycle	the continuous transfer of carbon between the atmosphere and living things.
nitrogen cycle	the transfer of nitrogen from the atmosphere to plants and back to the atmosphere and directly into plants again.