Ecosystems Vocabulary

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Across
  1. 2. The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth occupied by living organisms
  2. 4. An organism that breaks down dead organisms and releases the nutrients from the dead matter into the environment around them
  3. 6. A relationship between organisms that strive for the same resources in the same place
  4. 8. An animal that feeds on dead organic material
  5. 10. Organisms that can make their own energy through biochemical processes
  6. 12. A biological interaction where one species benefits from another species without harming or benefiting it
  7. 15. An organism that eats exclusively plant-based foods and is on the second level of a food chain
  8. 17. An animal that feeds on plants
  9. 21. An animal that feeds on flesh
  10. 22. A group of species that are commonly found together
  11. 24. A community of living organisms interacting with their nonliving physical environment within a specific area
  12. 25. Hierarchy levels in an ecosystem, of organisms that share the same function and nutritional relationships in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy
  13. 26. A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of breeding
  14. 28. A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
  15. 29. An organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients
  16. 30. A relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits at the expense of the other
Down
  1. 1. A living organism that obtains its energy by eating other organisms
  2. 3. A close, prolonged association between two or more different biological species
  3. 5. An organism that gets its energy by eating primary consumers, which are herbivores that eat producers
  4. 7. An ecological process where one organism hunts, captures, and kills another organism for food
  5. 9. A symbiosis that is beneficial to both organisms involved
  6. 11. A group of organisms of the same species that live in a specific geographic area and can interbreed
  7. 13. An animal that eats food of both plant and animal origins
  8. 14. An animal that obtains its nutrition by eating primary and secondary consumers
  9. 16. A species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend on, if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically
  10. 18. Not associated with living organisms, includes items such as light, temperature, wind patterns, and precipitation
  11. 19. An organism that is able to form nutrition from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide
  12. 20. A large naturally occurring community of plants and animals occupying a major habitat
  13. 23. Relating to living things in ecological relations
  14. 27. A hierarchy of organisms dependent on the next as a source of food