The living world

• Abiotic: factors in an ecosystem relating to non-living things.

  Eg. temperature, sunlight, rainfall
• Biotic: Factors in an ecosystem relating to all the living things.

  eg. Flora and Fauna
• biodiversity: range of species in an ecosystem
• biome: large scale ecosystem.

  eg.

  deserts

  rainforests

  Deciduous forest

  Tundra

  grassland

  tropical rainforest

  Savanna

  Polar
• consumer: creature that eats herbivores and or plant matter
• decomposer: organism such as bacterium or fungus that breaks down dead tissue, which is then recycled to the environment
• ecosystem: community of plants and animals that interact with each other and their physical environment
• food chain: connections between different organisms that rely on each other as their food source
• food web: hierarchy of plants and animals that rely on each other for food
• nutrient cycling: set of process where organisms extract minerals necessary for growth from soil and water, passing it on through the food chain and returning it to soil and water again
• global ecosystem: very large ecological areas on the earth's surface (or biomes) with fauna and flora adapting to their environment.