How Organisms Interact

1. How Organisms Interact Topic 4 Interactions and Ecosystems Science 7

2. Biotic – living • Abiotic – non-living • The biotic and abiotic factors of an ecosystem interact with each other

4. The Roles of Organisms in an Ecosystem • Niche – the role an organism plays in its ecosystem

6. Producers – organisms that produce food energy for themselves • Consumers – all other organisms, they need to get their food from a producer or other consumer There are 3 types of consumers:

7. Herbivores • Animals that eat producers

8. Carnivores • Animals that eat other consumers • Predator – the animal that does the hunting • Prey – the animal that is hunted

9. Omnivores • Animals that eat both producers and consumers

11. Food Chains • A model that shows how energy stored in food passes from organism to organism

13. Energy flow is the movement of energy, stating from the Sun, and passing from one organism to the next.

14. Food Web • A series of interconnected food chains

16. Pyramid of Numbers • Includes the same organisms as in a food chain, but the size of each level changes to show the number of organisms involved

18. Biomass • The total mass of all the organisms in an ecosystem

19. Scavengers • Organisms that feed on dead or decaying plant or animal matter

20. Decomposers • Organisms that grow on or in the dead or waste material, absorbing some of the nutrients into their own cells