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Food Web: Glossary
B
- bacteria
- microscopic living organisms which can cause illness, participate in fermentation or decompose
- bison
- large animal related to the cow found in North American plains
C
- cannibals
- any life form that eats its own kind
- carbon dioxide
- a gas that plants use in the making of food
- carnivores
- animals that eat other animal life
- circulating
- to move in a circular pattern
- crayfish
- a freshwater creature smaller but similar to a lobster
D
- decomposer
- a life form that breaks down dead plant and animal tissues into simpler substances
- decomposition
- the process done by the decomposer
- dependent
- relying on something else to complete a task
E
- energy
- the ability to work
F
- food chain
- a system that carries energy through living organisms
- fungi
- a living organism from the family that includes molds, mushrooms, and yeasts
H
- herbivores
- animals that eat plants
I
- illness
- unwell - to be sick
L
- larvae
- the young of certain organisms
M
- maggots
- the young of certain flies
- microbes
- microscopic living organisms
- minerals
- a type of matter that is neither plant nor animal and is often found in soil
N
- nutrients
- matter that gives nourishment
O
- omnivore
- animals that eat both plants and animals
P
- photosynthesis
- the process plants use to turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugar energy
- predators
- animals who hunt their food
- primary consumers
- the first level of the food chain after producer - an herbivore or omnivore which eats plant life
- process
- a series of actions in a system
- produce
- to cause
- producers
- plants are the producers in the food chain because they are the cause of passing food energy
S
- scavengers
- an animal or other organism that does not kill its own food, but eats off of food left by other forms of life
- secondary consumer
- a carnivore or omnivore which eats primary consumers
- shrew
- small rodent similar to a mouse or rat
- survival
- to continue to live
T
- tertiary
- third in order, rank, level, stage, formation, etc
W
- wild
- in the natural part of the world - not cared for by humans
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