Environmental Science Study Guide

A sequence of organisms each of which serves as a source of nutrients and energy for the next. Only shows the transfer of matter and energy of one feeding line in an ecosystem.

• Food Chain

• Carnivore

Branch of biology that focuses on how organisms interact with one another and their physical environment.

• Ecology

• Net Primary Productivity

Organisms that cannot make their own food.

• Food web

• Consumer

Ecologists assign each organism in an ecosystem these feeding levels based on whether or not they create their own food/energy and their feeding behavior.

• Secondary Consumer

• Trophic Level

All organisms (plants and animals) use this process to release energy by utilizing oxygen and glucose to fuel their life processes.

• Omnivores

• Aerobic Cellular Respiration

Organisms that feed on the wastes or newly dead bodies of other organisms.

• Detritivores

• Decomposer

Rate at which an ecosystem's total producers convert radiant energy into chemical energy.

• Gross Primary Production

• Photosynthesis

Consumers that mostly eat green plants and algae, almost always herbivores.

• Primary Consumers

• Photosynthesis

An essential organism to its natural environment relative to its abundance. Can fulfill a variety of roles to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

• Keystone Species

• Food Chain

Producers use this process to create their own food, converting carbon dioxide and water into glucose, oxygen by utilizing sunlight.

• Photosynthesis

• Ecology