Key Terms: Ecosystems Flashcards

All 8 cards in this deck

What is an ecosystem?

A community of plants and animals interacting with each other and with the non-living parts of their environment.

What are the biotic components of an ecosystem?

The living parts, e.g. plants, animals, bacteria and fungi.

What are the abiotic components of an ecosystem?

The non-living parts, e.g. climate, water, soil, light and rock.

In an ecosystem, what is a producer?

An organism that makes its own food using sunlight (photosynthesis), e.g. a green plant.

In an ecosystem, what is a decomposer?

An organism that breaks down dead plant and animal material, returning nutrients to the soil, e.g. bacteria and fungi.

What is nutrient cycling?

The continuous transfer of nutrients between soil, living organisms (biomass) and dead organic matter (litter).

True or false? A food web shows a single line of feeding relationships, while a food chain shows many linked chains.

False. A food chain is a single line of feeding links; a food web shows many food chains connected together.

What is interdependence in an ecosystem?

Where the living and non-living parts rely on one another, so a change to one affects the others.