Organising an ecosystem

• Producer


  Organism that makes its own food, usually by photosynthesis
• Food chain


  Representation of the feeding relationships within a community
• Consumer


  Organism that eats other organisms for food
• Herbivore


  Organism that only eats producers (plants,algae)
• Predator


  Organism that kills and eats other organisms
• Prey organism


  Organism that is killed and eaten by another organism
• Apex predator


  Carnivore with no predators
• Organisms usually have more complex feeding relationships, with more than one predator and more than one food source. These can be shown in a food web.
• All materials in the living world are recycled, providing the building materials for future organisms.
• Key terms


  • biomass
  • carbon cycle
  • carnivore
  • consumer
  • evaporation
  • food chain
  • herbivore
  • precipitation
  • predator
  • prey
  • producer
  • water cycle