The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships. This includes their interactions with the lithosphere (the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle), hydrosphere (all surface water), and atmosphere (the envelope of gases surrounding the planet).

A compound is a substance containing two or more different chemical elements bound together by a chemical bond. In covalent compounds, electrons are shared between atoms. In ionic compounds, one atom borrows an electron from another atom resulting in two ions (electrically charged atoms) of opposite polarities that then become bonded electrostatically.

An element is matter than cannot be separated into different types of matter by ordinary chemical methods.

The trachea branches into the left and right bronchi which each lead to a lung where the bronchi subdivide into smaller tubes called bronchioles. Each bronchiole ends in a small sac called an alveolus which allows oxygen from the air to enter the bloodstream via tiny blood vessels called capillaries.

Producers (autotrophs) serve as a food source for other organisms. Typical producers are plants that can make their own food through photosynthesis and certain bacteria that are capable of converting inorganic substances into food through chemosynthesis