Ecosystem Crossword Puzzle
Across
- 3. An organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide
- 4. A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
- 6. An organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients
- 8. Plankton consisting of microscopic plants.
- 15. An animal that feeds on plants.
- 16. An animal that feeds on flesh.
- 17. An animal or person that eats food of both plant and animal origin.
- 18. Renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals
- 19. Process by which an element or compound transitions from its liquid state to its gaseous state below the temperature at which it boils
- 20. The process by which plants give off water vapor through the stomata in their leaves.
- 22. The sum of all processes by which water moves from the land surface to the atmosphere via evaporation and transpiration.
- 23. A form of water, such as rain, snow, or sleet, that condenses from the atmosphere, becomes too heavy to remain suspended, and falls to the Earth's surface.
- 24. Organisms that carry out photosynthesis.
- 25. An organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes organic material.
Down
- 1. A type of heterotroph, or organisms that consume dead and decaying organic matter known as detritus to obtain energy and nutrition.
- 2. The rate of production of new biomass by an individual, population, or community; the fertility or capacity of a given habitat or area.
- 5. A class of organisms that obtain their energy through the oxidation of inorganic molecules, such as iron and magnesium
- 7. Photosynthetic microscopic organisms that are technically bacteria
- 8. An organism that produces organic compounds from simple substances such as water and carbon dioxide; an autotroph.
- 9. An organism that derives the organic compounds and energy it needs from the consumption of other organisms; a heterotroph.
- 10. Process during which the nitrogen compound is released back into the atmosphere by converting nitrate into gaseous nitrogen (N)
- 11. Transferred between organisms in food webs from producers to consumers
- 12. The production portion of carbon dioxide in an ecosystem's carbon flux
- 13. The biological process by which chemical energy is converted into carbohydrates for the organism's food.
- 14. Process where microscopic organisms like bacteria or other types of decomposing organisms, break down nitrogen-containing chemicals from dead organic matter, into simple substances like ammonia
- 16. The process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water
- 21. The process through which an organism incorporates nutrients from outside its body to the more complex structures needed inside of it.