How Ecosystems Work

Because plants make their own food, they are called _______________.

• producers

• consumers

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-3

What breaks down dead organisms in an ecosystem and returns nutrients to soil, water, and air?

• decomposers

• herbivores

• carnivores

• omnivores

_________________ is the process in which energy from the sun enters an ecosystem when plants use sunlight to make sugar molecules

• photosynthesis

• cellular respiration

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-6

The process of breaking food to yield energy is _____________.

• photosynthesis

• cellular respiration

A ______________ is a sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another organism.

• food chain

• food web

• trophic level

A ____________ shows many feeding relationships that are possible in an ecosystem.

• food chain

• food web

• trophic level

Each step in the transfer of energy through a food chain or food web is known as a __________________.

• food chain

• food web

• trophic level

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-3

The _______________ is the movement of carbon from the nonliving environment into living things and back

• carbon cycle

• nitrogen cycle

The _______________ is the process in which nitrogen circulates among the air, soil, water, plants, and animals in an ecosystem.

• carbon cycle

• nitrogen cycle

__________ is a gradual process of change and replacement of the type of species in a community.

• Ecological succession

• Primary succession

• Secondary succession