Abiotic – absent of life or living organisms; non-living: includes light, temperature and atmospheric gases

Biotic – having to do with living organisms

Community – all the different populations of an area

Consumer – in ecology, an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on other organisms and their remains; classified as primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores) and microconsumers (decomposers)

Decomposer – an organism that breaks down large chemicals from dead organisms into small chemicals and returns important materials to the soil and water

Ecology – branch of biology dealing with the interactions between organisms and their environment

Ecosystem – plants and animals interacting with each other and their physical environment

Population – all the members of one species in a particular area

Producer – an organism that creates its own food from inorganic substances through photosynthesis (by green plants) or chemosynthesis (by anaerobic bacteria) and serves as a source of food in the food chain