APES 1.8 Primary Productivity

Secondary Consumer

A carnivore that eats primary consumers.

Tertiary Consumer

A carnivore that eats secondary consumers.

Food Web

A complex model of how energy and matter move between trophic levels.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats other consumers.

Herbivore

A consumer that eats producers. Also known as Primary consumer.

Trophic Pyramid

A representation of the distribution of biomass, numbers, or energy among trophic levels.

Scavenger

An organism that consumes dead animals.

Consumer

An organism that is incapable of photosynthesis and must obtain its energy by consuming other organisms. Also known as a Heterotroph.

Detritivore

An organism that specializes in breaking down dead tissues and waste products into smaller pieces.

Producer

An organism that uses the energy of the Sun to produce usable forms of energy. Also known as an Autotroph.

Decomposers

Fungi and bacteria that convert organic matter into small elements and molecules that can be recycled back into the ecosystem.

Aerobic Respiration

The process by which cells convert glucose and oxygen into energy, carbon dioxide, and water.

Anaerobic Respiration

The process by which cells convert glucose into energy in the absence of oxygen.

Cellular Respiration

The process by which cells unlock the energy of chemical compounds.

Photosynthesis

The process by which producers use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose.

Ecological Efficiency

The proportion of consumed energy that can be passed from one trophic level to another.

Biosphere

The region of our planet where life resides, the combination of all ecosystems.

Food Chain

The sequence of consumption from producers through tertiary consumers.

Trophic Levels

The successive levels of organisms consuming one another.

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

The total amount of solar energy that producers in an ecosystem capture via photosynthesis over a given amount of time.

Biomass

The total mass of all living matter in specific area.

Standing Crop

The amount of biomass present in an ecosystem at a particular time.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

The energy captured by producers in an ecosystem minus the energy producers respire.