| Term | Definition |
|---|
| energy and chemical building blocks | the two essential elements of food |
| building blocks of food | fats, proteins, carbohydrates |
| autotrophs | organisms that make their own food - plants, algae, bacteria |
| photosynthesis | making food from water, carbon dioxide and light |
| heterotrophs/consumers | organisms that eat other organisms |
| energy | made of atoms - the ability to do work |
| producers | the photosynthetic organisms that make carbohydrate molecules; they transform the sun's energy intofood energy |
| biomass | the total organic matter in an ecosystem |
| herbivores | animals that eat only plants (primary consumers) |
| carnivores | animals that eat meat (secondary consumers) |
| tertiary consumers | consumers that eat secondary consumers (sharks, polar bears) |
| decomposers | organisms that eat the remains of dead organisms (fungi) |
| detritus | wastes and remains of dead organisms |
| trophic levels | grouping organisms by how they get food; feeding levels |
| food web | network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem |
| 10% | the amount of food consumed at the trophic level that is converted to biomass |
| biomass | the energy from food that is stored in the body organisms |
Combine with other sets
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