• Make their own energy
• Convert sun energy into chemical energy
• Also called a producer

• Organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates
• Live in volcanic vents, hot springs, marshes

• Get energy from other organisms
• Also called consumers

• Eats only plants
• Type of Heterotroph
• Ex. cow, deer, rabbit, bee, elephant

• Eats only animals
• Type of heterotroph
• Ex. snake, dog, lion, crocodile

• Eat plants and animals
• Type of Heterotroph
• Ex. human, bear, crow

• Eat decomposing bits of organic matter
• Type of Heterotroph
• Ex. mite, earthworm, snail, crab

• Break down organic matter
• Type of Heterotroph
• Ex. bacteria, fungi

• Ingest nonliving plants and animals
• Type of Heterotroph
• Ex. vulture, termite, beetle

Organisms and the environment interacting through a one-way flow of energy and a cycling of nutrients

• The different feeding relationships in an ecosystem
• Only 10% of the energy taken in by an organism is stored
• Energy is passed through no more than 4-5 levels

A straight line series of steps by which energy is stored and passed on to higher trophic levels

A network of crossing interlinked food chains that shows all the possible feeding relationships at each trophic level

The rate at which primary producers capture and store energy in their tissue

The total rate of photosynthesis for the ecosystem minue the energy used by the producers for respiration

Combined weight of all organisms at a given trophic level in an ecosystem

Chemicals and nutrients are transferred from the environment into organisms then back to the environment

Water cycles through organisms and the environment by evaporation, condensation, percipitation and transpiration

Any region in which all precipitation drains into a single stream or river

• Carbon enters atmosphere during respiration, burning fossil fuels, and when volcanoes erupt
• Most atmospheric carbon occurs as CO₂

Cycle of nitrogen through organisms and the environment through nitrogen fixation, ammonification, decomposition, nitrification, and denitrification

• Bacteria contert N₂ to ammonia (NH₃)
• NH₃ dissolves into ammonium (NH₄)

• Bacteria degrade nitrogenous wastes and remains of organisms
• Convert NH₃ to NH₄
• Plants can take this up

• Bacteria convert NH₄ to nitrite (NO₂) to nitrate (NO₃)
• Plants can take this up

Bacteria convert nitrate or nitrite (NO₃, NO₂) to N₂

N₂ is released back into the atmosphere

The warming of Earth due to the atmospheric accumulation of CO₂, which absorbs infrared radiation and slows its escape from the irradiated Earth

Many researchers suspect greenhouse gases may be contributing to long-term higher temperatures at the Earth's surface