ecology

• Apex predator


  Top predator in an ecosystem
• Biodiversity


  Variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem
• Carnivore


  Organism that feeds on other animals
• Consumers

  • Primary
  • Secondary
  • Tertiary
  • Quaternary
• Detritivore


  Organism that feeds on dead or decaying organic matter
• Ecosystem engineers


  Organisms that directly or indirectly modulate the availability of resources to other species
• Food chain


  Series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food
• Food web


  Complex of interconnected food chains
• Herbivore


  Organism that feeds on plants
• Heterotroph


  Organism that cannot produce its own food and feeds on organic material
• Invasive species


  Non-native species that spreads and causes damage to the environment
• Keystone species


  Species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance
• Non-native species


  Species introduced to an area where it does not naturally occur
• autotroph:


  organism that makes its own food
• biome: 


  an area classified according to the species that live in that location
• atmosphere


  gaseous layer around the earth
• biosphere


  the part of the earth where living things exist.
• community


  an interacting group of various species in a common location.
• decomposer


  An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter
• ecosystem


  a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together to form a bubble
• equilibrium


  the state of balance and stability, external and internal force are balanced
• geosphere


  all the rocks that make up Earth
• hydrosphere


  the total amount of water on a planet
• omnivore


  an organism that eats plants and animals
• population


  the whole number of inhabitants occupying an area
• producers


  organisms that make their own food
• scavenger


  an organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant material
• trophic level


  the position of an organism in the food chain