| producer | an organism that makes its own food. Ex. a plant |
| consumer | An organisms in a community that must eat to get the energy it needs to live |
| herbivore | An organism that gets its energy by eating plants. Ex a cow |
| carnivore | An organism that gets its energy by eating other animals (meat). Ex a lion |
| omnivore | An organism that gets its energy by eating both animals (meat) and plants. Ex a bear |
| decomposer | An organism that breaks down dead organism and absorbs its nutrients. Ex: mushrooms |
| scavenger | An organism that eats dead animals |
| parasite | An organism that lives in or on a living animal feeding off it. Ex: flea |
| predator | an animal that hunts, catches, and eats another animal. Ex: An owl |
| prey | An animal that is hunted, aught, and eaten by another animal. Ex: a mouse |
| competition | Contest among organisms for the limited resources of an ecosystem |
| food chain | The path of energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem |
| food web | overlapping food chains with different pathways for the food energy to flow in an ecosystem |