TERMS

1. Ecology The study of how organisms interact with their environment and each other

2. Producer Organisms capable of making their own food from: water, light and air

3. Consumer Organisms that must consume other organisms as a food source.

eg. of Consumers The cow eats the grass The calf eats the milk The lion eats the buffalo The gull eats anything

Types of Consumers a. Herbivore [what is a herbivore?] Basking shark eating phytoplankton

4. Herbivore An organism that eats fresh plants as 90% or more of its diet

5. Carnivore [What is a carnivore?]

5. Carnivore An organism that eats fresh meat as 90% or more of its diet. Wolf kills & eats deer Shark catches & eats fish

6. Omnivore [What is an omnivore?]

6. Omnivore Organisms that eat a mixture of fresh plant & animal materials. Field rat eats seeds & insects Dogs eats anything!

7. Detritus [What is detritus?]

7. Detritus Waste from plants and animals, including dead remains Remains of dead animals or dead plants

8. Decomposer [What is a decomposer?]

8. Decomposer An organism, often a bacterium or fungus, that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, thus making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem

9. Food Chain [What is a food chain?]

9. Food Chain Sequence of organisms, one feeding off another

10. Habitat [What is an organism’s habitat?]

Habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.

8. Niche [What is an organism’s niche?]

8. Niche Everything an organism does to survive & reproduce This often refers to where it gets its food from as in the bird example on next slide

SHARING & NOT COMPETING Each bird eats from a different part of the same tree

Questions to Complete