Ecology Vocabulary

5. An organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide and other chemicals
9. An organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients
10. All the food chains in an ecosystem
11. An organism that mostly eats flesh or the meat of other animals
13. Any organism that breaks down or eats away decaying material for its energy source.
14. The non-living parts of an ecosystem that shapes its environment
17. Organisms that cannot produce their own food; must eat other plants and/or animals to get energy
19. An individual animal, plant or single-celled life form
20. A larger organism that harbors a smaller organism.
21. An organism that eats plants and animals
22. All the inhabitants of a certain species living in a particular area

1. The regions of the surface of earth occupied by living organisms
2. An organism that hunts and kills other organisms for food.
3. The biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment
4. An organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass such as meat or rotting plant material
6. Animals that are killed or eaten by other animals.
7. The organisms that shape up an environment
8. Organisms that produce their own food
10. A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another
12. An interacting group of various species in a common location
15. Each several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem compromising organisms that have the same place in the food chain
16. The study of organisms in relation to their surroundings
18. The natural home or environment of an organism
20. An organism that mostly feeds on plants
22. An organism that lives on a host, taking what it needs to stay alive while often injuring the host