Name_____________ #____
Science Ch 3: Exploring Ecosystems Vocabulary
Vocabulary Word
1. ecosystem
Definition
the living and nonliving things in
an environment and all of their
interactions
2. biotic factor
a living part of an ecosystem
3. abiotic factor
a nonliving part of an
ecosystem
4. consumer
an organism that cannot make
its own food
5. producer
an organism, such as a plant,
that makes its own food
6. habitat
the home of an organism
7. community
all the populations in an
ecosystem
8. population
all the members of a single
type of organism in an
ecosystem
9. biome
one of Earth’s large
ecosystems with its own kind of
climate, soil, and living things
10. grassland
a biome where grasses are the
main plant life
11.deciduous
forest
a biome with many kinds of
trees that lose their leaves
each autumn
11. tundra
a large, treeless biome where
the ground is frozen all year
12. taiga
a cool forest biome of conifers
found in the upper northern
hemisphere
13. tropical
rainforest
a hot, humid forest biome near
the equator with much rainfall
and a wide variety of organisms
14. desert
a biome with very little rainfall
15. decomposer
organism
rganism that breaks down
wastes and the remains of
other organisms into simpler
substances
17.food chain
the
he path that energy takes
from one organism to another
in the form of food
18. food web
the
he food chains that overlap in
an ecosystem