T-cap notes

1. T-cap notes By. AJ McNeal

2. Life Science • What is a producer? A biotic(living thing) factor that can make it's own food. These organisms are green because of chlorophyll. • What is a consumer? An organism that gets its food from (eating) other living things, in order to have enough energy to survive or reproduce. • What is a scavenger? Scavenging is both a carnivorous and herbivorousfeeding behavior in which the scavenger feeds on dead and decaying organic matter present in its habitat.

3. ………. • What is a decomposer? An organism that breaks down other living things to obtain nutrients/energy. • What is a primary consumer? A primary consumer is an animal that gets its energy from plants. It is also called an herbivore. A few examples of herbivores include cows, moose, gazelles, rabbits and elephants. • What is a secondary consumer? An animal that feeds on smaller plant-eating animals in a food chain. • What is a tertiary consumer? It is a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on animals at all trophic levels. They can also be called scavengers. • What does biotic mean?Biotic, meaning of or related to life, are living factors. Plants, animals, fungi, protist and bacteria are all biotic or living factors. • What does abiotic mean?Abiotic, meaning not alive, are nonliving factors that affect living organisms. Environmental factors such habitat (pond, lake, ocean, desert, mountain) or weather such as temperature, cloud cover, rain, snow, hurricanes, etc. are abiotic factors.

4. 8 major terrestrial biomes • 1) Tropical Forest • 2) Grassland • 3) Desert • 4) Chaparral • 5) Temperate Forest • 6) Taiga • 7) Tundra • 8) Mountain/Ice

5. 2 main aquatic biomes • Marine water contains a lot of salt. Most of Earth's aquatic biomes are marine. All the world's oceans and seas are made of saltwater. They are all marine biomes. Oceans and seas cover about three-fourths of Earth's surface. That is a lot of water! • Fresh water contains almost no salt. Some of Earth's aquatic biomes are freshwater. Streams, rivers, and lakes are made of fresh water. Most plants and animals need freshwater to live. Most freshwater is frozen, though. It is in ice caps and icebergs. Most plants and animals cannot use the frozen water. This leaves only 1 percent of all the water on Earth useable freshwater!

6. Space science • The eight planets in our Solar System are divided into two groups – the inner planets and the outer planets. The inner planets are the first four planets closest to the Sun, which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The inner and outer planets are separated by the asteroid belt, which is a region of space where thousands of asteroids can be found. • Inner planets are small,dense,and made of rock. • Outer planets are extremely large,cold,and made of gas (hydrogen, helium).

7. ……… • Pluto and Ceres are called dwarf planets.