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Front 1

primary producer

Back 1

An autotroph, usually a photosynthetic organism.

Front 2

primary consumer

Back 2

An herbivore; an organism in the trophic level of an ecosystem that eats plants or algae.

Front 3

secondary consumer

Back 3

A member of the trophic level of an ecosystem consisting of carnivores that eat herbivores.

Front 4

tertiary consumer

Back 4

carnivores that eat mainly other carnivores.

Front 5

detritivore

Back 5

A consumer that derives its energy from nonliving organic material; a decomposer.

Front 6

primary production

Back 6

amount of light energy converted to chemical energy by autotrophs in an ecosystem

Front 7

eutrophication

Back 7

A process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased growth of organisms such as algae.

Front 8

secondary production

Back 8

amount of chemical energy in consumers′ food that is converted to their own new biomass

Front 9

production efficiency

Back 9

fraction of energy stored in food that is not used for respiration.

Front 10

green world hypothesis

Back 10

terrestrial herbivores consume relatively little plant biomass because they are held in check by a variety of factors

Front 11

biogeochemical cycle

Back 11

Any nutrient circuit which involve both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems.

Front 12

critical load

Back 12

The amount of added nutrient, usually nitrogen or phosphorus, that can be absorbed by plants without damaging ecosystem integrity.

Front 13

biological magnification

Back 13

A trophic process in which retained substances become more concentrated with each link in the food chain.