5. Summary and Vocabulary

Summary

  • Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, and omnivores eat both.
  • Predators are animals that eat a prey animal. Scavengers eat organisms that are already dead. Decomposers break down dead plants and animals into component parts, including nutrients.
  • Relationships between species can be one of competition or one of symbiosis, in which one or both species benefits. Mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism are the three types of symbiotic relationships.

Vocabulary

  • carnivore: Animals that only eat other animals for food.
  • competition: A rivalry between two species, or individuals of the same species, for the same resources.
  • consumer: An organism that uses other organisms for food energy.
  • decomposer: An organism that breaks down the tissues of a dead organism into its various components, including nutrients, that can be used by other organisms.
  • herbivore: An animal that only eats producers.
  • omnivore: An organism that consumes both producers and other consumers for food.
  • predator: A symbiotic relationship between two species in which one species benefits and one species is harmed.
  • prey: An animal that could be killed and eaten by a predator.
  • producer: An organism that converts energy into chemical energy that it can use for food. Most producers use photosynthesis but a very small number use chemosynthesis.
  • scavenger: Animals that eat animals that are already dead.