Forest Ecosystem Vocabulary

These are the factors in the environment that are non-living, such as sunlight, temperature, rainfall and soil.

• Biotic

• Abiotic

• Aspect

• Biome

This is the orientation of a slope with respect to the compass; the direction toward which a slope faces; north facing slopes are generally cooler than south facing slopes.

• Abiotic

• Biotic

• Aspect

• Canopy

This a large region defined by a particular climate and specific animal and plant communities. Examples of biomes are: desert, forest, grassland, tundra, freshwater, and marine.

• Biotic

• Canopy

• Aspect

• Biome

This is the living factors of the environment, animals, plants, and other living things.

• Biotic

• Abiotic

• Climax Forest

• Consumer

This is a collective term for the crowns of all the tallest trees in the forest.

• Abiotic

• Canopy

• Community

• Biotic

 This is the layer of cells beneath the tree bark from which new wood (xylem) and new inner bark (phloem) originate.

• Consumer

• Canopy

• Cambium

• Aspect

This is a forest maintained over a long period of time by natural forces that do not change in species composition.

• Canopy

• Community

• Cambium

• Climax Forest

This is a symbiotic relationship between two species in which one of them benefits and the other neither benefits nor is harmed.

• Commensalism

• Climax Forest

• Cambium

• Biotic

This is all of the species that live together in the same habitat and interact with each other.

• Abiotic

• Community

• Biotic

• Commensalism

This is an organism that gets its food by feeding on other organisms.

• Decomposer

• Competition

• Canopy

• Consumer