CHAPTER 18 - Organisms and their environment

• Ecology is the interaction between living organisms and the environment
• Food chains are the sequence by which the chemical energy in food is passed to a plant to an animal to another animal and so on
• Food webs are multiple food chains connected together
• Producers produce energy-containing organic nutrients that all other organisms in the food chain need to survive
• Decomposers are organisms like fungi that get their energy by feeding on dead and decaying bodies and waste organic material from plants and animals
• Animal consumers; primary consumers are herbivores meaning they eat plants, secondary consumers are carnivores, tertiary consumers are carnivores, and as well as quaternary consumers meaning they eat animals.