ES Ch 3 Vocabulary

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GPP

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Gross Primary Productivity: The rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert radiant energy into chemical energy.

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Producer

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An organism such as a plant that makes the food it needs from compounds in soil, carbon dioxide, air, and water by using the energy of sunlight.

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Hydrologic Cycle

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The cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes Earth’s fixed supply of water.

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Primary Consumer

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An organism that eats mostly green plants or algae.

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Groundwater

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Precipitation that seeps into the soil and collects in an underground reservoir.

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Food Chain

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A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.

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Food Web

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A complex network of feeding relationships among various organisms in an ecosystem.

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Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

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The rate at which producers in an ecosystem create organic matter after accounting for the energy used in respiration.

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Decomposer

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An organism that breaks down dead organic material, returning nutrients to the ecosystem.

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Consumer

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An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms.