Ecosystems - All the definitions

Ecosystems - combination of plants and animals living together with the non-living environment.

Photosynthesis - the process in which carbon dioxide and water are made into glucose and oxygen by plants.

Gross primary productivity - the rate of energy conversion into sugars by photosynthesis.

Biomass - energy which is stored as plant material.

Net primary productivity - the rate of photosynthesis minus the rate of respiration.

Net secondary productivity - the rate of biomass production by a herbivore.

Herbivore - plant eaters that get their energy directly or indirectly from plants.

Carnivores - these are meat eaters that gain their energy by eating herbivores.

Food chain - the movement of energy from sunlight to plant to herbivore to carnivore.

Trophic level - each step in a food chain.

Ecological community - a group of interacting species living in the same space and bound together by the influences that the species have on one another.

Abiotic - the non-living things in an ecosystem.

Biotic - the living environment.

Trophic pyramid - a pyramid diagram showing the four main thophic levels.

Autotrophs/producers - first and lowest level in a trophic pyramid.

Detritivore - an animal that feeds on dead material or waste products.