Living Things Vocabulary

2. part of the Earth where life exists
5. organic matter that contains stored energy
7. diagram that shows how the energy in food molecules flows from one organism to the next
9. an organism's way of life and its relationships with its abiotic and biotic environments
10. organism that use sunlight directly to make food
12. a group of individuals of the same species that live together in the same area at the same time
13. describes living factors in the environment
14. the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment
15. animal that feeds on the bodies of dead animals (snails, clams, worms, crabs)
19. describes non-living factors in the environment
24. diagram shaped like a triangle that shows the loss of energy at each level of the food chain
26. the process in which plants use carbon dioxide from the air to make sugars.

1. energy can not be created nor destroyed, only transferred from one place to another.
3. process in which sugar molecules are broken down to release energy. Carbon dioxide and water are released.
4. organism that get energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms
6. consumer that eats a variety of organisms
8. consumer that eats plants
11. an organism that makes its own food.
15. a relationship between two organisms in an ecosystem.
16. made up of a community of organisms and its abiotic environment
17. an organism that can not make its own food.
18. the environment in which an organism lives
20. a domino effect in a food chain where a change in the population of one animal, usually a top predator, significantly impacts the populations of other animals at lower levels in the food chain, causing a ripple effect throughout the entire ecosystem;
21. all of the populations of different species that live and interact in an area
22. a complex diagram representing the main energy pathways in a real ecosystem
23. consumer that eats animals
25. organism that eat producers or other organisms for energy