Consumer: an organism that cannot make its own food and must eat other organisms (plant or animal)
Producer: an organism that can makes its own food (photosynthesis)
Herbivore: a consumer that eats only plants (producers)
Carnivore: a consumer that eats other consumers
Omnivore: a consumer that eats consumers and producers
Decomposer: an organism that breaks down materials so they can be resued in an ecosystem
KEY IDEAS
1. Matter must be recycled.
2. Most matter cycles begin with plants.
3. Photosynthesis is when plants make food (sugar or glucose) from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.
The equation is: (the numbers should be lower than the letters)
CO2 + H20 ------> O2 + C6H12O6
4. A simple feeding pathway is called a food chain.
5. A food web shows many relationships by connecting each organism with all of the organisms it eats and all fo the organisms that eat it.
6. Sample food chain:
organic matter --> mites --> beetles --> robin
7. Wolves eat organisms that rely on plants, so wolves need plants. Plants usually begin a food chain or matter cycle.