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Ecosystems
Ecosystems Today |
Biodiversity- Bill Nye |
Intro to Biomes Music |
Mission Biomes |
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Ecosystem Vocabulary
- Producer
- any of the plants and algae that produce oxygen and food that the animals need.
- Ecosystem
- All the living and non-living things in an area and their interactions with each other.
- Decomposers
- any of the fungi or bacteria that break down dead plant and animals into useful things like minerals and rich soil.
- Fungi
- members of a kingdom that contain one celled and many-celled living things that absorb food through their environment. A decomposer- mushrooms are an example.
- Biome
- one of Earth's large ecosystems, whit its climate, soil, plants, and animals.
- Consumers
- any animal that eats plants or eats other plant-eating animals.
- Scavengers
- a meat eating animal that feeds on the remains of dead animals.
- Habitat
- the place where a population lives.
- Organisms
- living things that are capable of reacting to stimuli, reproduction and growth.
- Taiga
- a cool, forest biome of conifers in the upper Northern Hemisphere.
- Alfalfa
- a flowering plant in the pea family. Grown to feed livestock.
- Elodea
- is a perennial aquatic plant often called water weeds. Often used in aquariums.
- Mustard
- a plant species that grows very small seeds that can be ground to use as a spice. The plant itself can be eaten as greens as well.
- Wheat
- A world wide cultivated grass that is harvested and the seed is ground into flour to make bread. Second largest crop in the world.
- Tundra
- a cold, treeless biome of the far North, marked by spongy topsoil.
- Sun
- the source of all energy to our planet.
- Symbiosis/Symbiotic
- a relationship between two kinds of organisms over time.
- Acid Rain
- moisture that falls to the Earth after being mixed with wastes from burned fossil fuels.
- Photosynthesis
- the food making process in green plants that uses sunlight.
- Germination
- the sprouting of a seed into a new plant.
- Individual
- a single member of a species.
- Population
- all the members of one species in an area.
- Community
- all the populations living in one area.
- Niche
- the role an organism has in its ecosystem.
- Desert
- a sandy or rocky biome, with little precipitation and little plant life.
- Food Chain
- the path of the energy in food from one organism to another.
- Food Web
- the overlapping food chains in an ecosystem.
- Energy Pyramid
- An energy pyramid is the graphical representation of the levels (nutritional) by which the incoming solar energy is transferred into an ecosystem.
- Competition
- active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some environmental resource in short supply
- Deciduous Forest
- a forest biome with many kinds of trees that lose their leaves each autumn.
- Learned Behavior
- a learned behavior is a behavior that was observed by an individual that they find it to be beneficial to them in some way.
- Increased Nutrients
- increased nutrients added to the environment can create algae blooms which can choke out existing organisms in an aquatic ecosystem.
- Extinct
- no longer exists. This organism will no longer be found alive on the earth.
- Tropical Rainforest
- a hot, humid biome near the equator, with much rainfall and a wide variety of life.
- Endangered
- a species threatened with extinction; broadly: anyone or anything whose continued existence is threatened.
- Threatened
- having an uncertain chance of continued survival <a threatened species> specifically: likely to become an endangered species
- Pollutant
- an unnatural substance added to the Earth's land, water or air.
- Grasslands
- a biome where grasses, not trees, are the main plant life. Prairies are one kind of grassland region.
- Ph-Paper
- Used to determine the measure of its ph which tells the level of acidic, neutral or basic of a substance.
- Instinct
- a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason
- abiotic factors
- nonliving parts of an ecosystem (sunlight, soil, temperature)
- bacteria
- helps in the natural recycling process, a decomposer.
- Estuary
- where fresh water and saltwater meet. (coastal area)
- Biotic factors
- living components of an ecosystem (the organisms) existence is threatened.
- Primary consumers
- use plants for energy (anything that eats plants) examples: deer, mice, rabbits, porcupines
- Secondary Consumers
- get their energy from primary consumers.
- Tertiary Consumers
- get their energy from secondary consumers.
- Organisms
- Living things
- Conservation
- sensible use of the earth’s resources to avoid harming the environment.
- Interdependence
- the relationship between plants and animals in an ecosystem.
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