A community of interacting organisms and their environment. Living things interact with each other, and also with non-living things like soil, water and air.

A scientist that studies plants.

A sweet, sugary liquid made inside flowers. Insects and hummingbirds feed on.

An area densely packed with lots of different kinds of plants, tall trees and animals. Rainforests get a lot of rain (about 100 inches of rain per year). All that rain allows lots of different plants to grow and lots of animals live near those plants. Rainforests also produce a lot of oxygen that humans breathe and scientists estimate that there are millions of different kinds of living things still undiscovered in rainforests.

Living things not naturally found in that ecosystem. They usually cause damage or throw off the balance of the natural ecosystem.

Anything living such as an animal, plant, insect, bacteria, etc.

Anything that doesn't grow and reproduce such as rocks, soil, air or water.

A living thing similar to a plant that is usually found growing in water. They produce their own food through photosynthesis like plants do, but algae have no leaves, stems or roots.

A closed container of plants and other living things that shows you how an ecosystem works.

Tiny living things that are everywhere around us. We can only see them with a very powerful microscope. They come in different shapes such as rods, spirals, and spheres. Bacteria are important in an ecosystem to break down dead and decaying matter.

The chemical process in which carbon dioxide and water combine, using energy from the Sun, to make sugar and oxygen.

The chemical process in which stored energy is broken down so it can be used by an organism to survive when there is no food source available.

A substance that is made from two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and is needed to sustain life.

A gas that contains one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.

A group of atoms bonded together.

A microorganism that uses the process of photosynthesis to make food and is often called blue-green algae.

A living thing that produces its own food.

A living thing that eats other living things.

A group of living things that break down dead things

A simple diagram to show how energy moves from one living thing to another.

A model that shows us how matter cycles and energy flows in an ecosystem through the intertwining of food chains.

Relationship between organisms that strive for the same resources in the same ecosystem.

A substance or object in the environment required by an organism for normal growth, maintenance, and reproduction.

Any living thing.

Surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives.

The things in one's surroundings, including living and nonliving things.

Traits that are inherited from one's parents, such as hair color, eye color, and height

Interaction between organisms of two different species.

Relationship in which one organism eats another organism.

Relationship in which two organisms compete for the same resource.

Relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is harmed.

Relationship in which both of the organisms benefit.

Relationship in which one organism benefits and the other organism is neither helped nor harmed.