April 2, 2014
AIM: What are the specific roles that organisms play in the ecosystem, and how do these roles interact with each other?
HOMEWORK: STUDY!!! Midterm FRIDAY!!!
New Vocabulary:
Producer- An organism that makes its own food using energy from the sun. Producers are the base of all ecosystems.
Autotroph- An organism that is able to synthesize its own organic nutrients.
Consumer- An organism that eats, or consumes other living organisms to get food.
Heterotroph– An organism that gets its organic nutrients from other organic matter (by consuming OR decomposing)
Predator- The hunter
Prey- The hunted
Parasite- Pathogenic organism that disrupts the homeostasis of another organisms by stealing nutrients
Host- Organism affected by a parasite
Decomposer- organism that gets its organic nutrients by breaking down dead organisms. The role of decomposers in the ecosystem is to recycle nutrients back into the soil to be used by producers!
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