1. A food web is a graphical description of feeding relationships among
species in an ecological community, that is, of who eats whom (Fig. 1). It is also a means of showing how energy and materials (e.g., carbon) flow through a community of species as a result of these feeding relationships. Typically, species are connected by lines or arrows called "links", and the species are sometimes referred to as "nodes" in food web diagrams. The pioneering animal ecologist Charles Elton (1927) introduced the concept of the food web (which he called food cycle) to general ecological science. As he described it: "The herbivores are usually preyed upon by carnivores, which get the energy of the sunlight at third-hand, and these again may be preyed upon by other carnivores, and so on, until we reach an animal which has no enemies, and which forms, as it were, a terminus on this food cycle. There are, in fact, chains of animals linked together by food, and all dependent in the long run upon plants. We refer to these as 'food-chains', and to all the food chains in a community as the 'foodcycle.'" 2. Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It is the primary connection in the water cycle that provides for the delivery of atmospheric water to the Earth. Most precipitation falls as rain. 3. POPULATIONS A population comprises all the individuals of a given species in a specific area or region at a certain time. Its significance is more than that of a number of individuals fuel- because not all individuals are identical. Populations contain genetic variation within and themselves and between other populations. Even fundamental genetic characteristics such as hair color or size may differ slightly from individual to individual. More importantly, not all members of the population are equal in their ability to survive then and reproduce. 4. BIOMES : Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a large area creating a typical ecosystem over that area. The biomes we leirned about shelter an astounding variety of living organisms. From the driest desert to the dripping rainforests, from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest ocean trenches life occurs in a marvelous spectrum of sizes,
colors, shapes, life cycles, and interrelationships.. Biodiversity the variety of
living things also makes the world a more beautiful and exciting place to live. 5.