Food Web Vocabulary

Meat-eater. An organism that consumes only other animals.

• consumer

• producer

• food web

• carnivore

An organism that must eat other organisms to obtain energy.

• consumer

• herbivore

• decomposer

• sun

An organism responsible for breaking down dead plants and animals and returning the nutrients to the soil.

• organism

• consumer

• decomposer

• omnivore

A model used to show a single path energy takes as it moves through an ecosystem.

• food chain

• food web

• producer

• transfer

A model used to show multiple paths energy takes as it moves through an ecosystem.

• producer

• food chain

• organism

• food web

Plant-eater. An organism that consumes only plants for energy.

• herbivore

• consumer

• carnivore

• omnivore

Plant- and meat-eater. An organism that consumes both plants and animals for energy.

• herbivore

• consumer

• omnivore

• carnivore

A living thing.

• consumer

• producer

• organism

• decomposer

An organism that must create its own energy through photosynthesis.

• consumer

• producer

• organism

• sun

The source of energy for all living things.

• producer

• consumer

• sun

• organism