EQ: What is an ecosystem?

Ecosystems

All living things around you make up the environment. An

environment includes living things and nonliving things. Living things include people, animals, and plants. Non-living things include soil and weather.

Ecosystems

All the things that interact in an environment make up an ecosystem. An ecosystem has two parts- living and nonliving things. An ecosystem can be small or large,

wet or dry, cold or hot.

Individuals and Populations

One deer is an individual. A group of deer is called a population. A population is a group of the same kind

of plant or animal living in the same ecosystem.

Individuals and Populations

Individual Population

Communities Amazon Rain Forest Blue Ridge Mountains

Plants, animals, and people live together. They live in a community. A community is all the populations that live in the same place. Look at these different communities.

Review Questions• What is an ecosystem? Give an example.• What are the 2 parts of an ecosystem?

Give and example.• What is the difference between individual

and populations? Give an example. • What is a community?

EQ: What are the roles of producers, consumers, and

decomposers?Vocabulary

Words–producer–omnivore –consumer–herbivore–carnivore–decomposer

Producers

Any living thing that makes its own food is called a producer. Plants are producers. Producers can be

small, like moss, or large, like an oak tree.

Consumers

An animal that eats plants or other animals is called a

consumer. Consumers cannot make their own food. Consumers must eat other living things.

Kinds of ConsumersThere are 3 kinds of consumers, herbivores,

carnivores, and omnivores.

DecomposersA decomposer eats dead plants or animals.

Decomposers also break down waste. Earthworms are

decomposers. They eat dead plants. Fungi are decomposers too.

They break down wood from dead trees.

Review Questions• What are producers?• What are consumers?• Describe the 3 kinds of consumers. • Give an example of each kind of

consumer.• What are decomposer and how do they

help the Earth?

EQ: How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

Vocabulary Words–habitat–niche– food chain–prey–predator– food web–energy pyramid

Habitats

A habitat is an environment that meets the needs of a living thing. An insect’s habitat can be small as the space under a rock. A migrating bird’s habitat can cross a continent.

Types of Habitats

NicheEach living thing in a habitat, has a role, or niche. A

niche is how a living thing works within an ecosystem.

A niche includes these things:• where a plant or animal lives• how it reproduces• where the animal gets its food• how an animal stays alive

What is the niche of the lion in the picture?

Food Chains

A food chain shows the path of food energy. Most food

chains start with producers, or plants that get energy from the sun.

Prey and PredatorsConsumers that are eaten are called prey. Consumers

that eat prey are called predators. Can you locate the prey and the predators in the

picture?

Food Webs

A food chain shows how an animal get energy. When food chains cross, they make food webs. Food webs can be

on land and in the ocean.

1st Level Consumers at the bottom of food web.

They each producer

2nd Level ConsumersEats a first level consumer

Top Level ConsumersEats 2nd level consumer but when top

level consumers die, decomposers help break down their remains

Food Webs

Energy Pyramid

An energy pyramid shows how much energy is passed on

from one thing to another. Producers are at the bottom of the energy pyramid.

Energy Pyramid

Review Questions• What is a habitat? Give an example.• What things are included in a niche?• Describe the difference between a food

chain and a food web. • Give examples of a prey and predator.

How are they different?• What does an energy pyramid show? Give

an example?

EQ: What factors influence ecosystem?

Vocabulary Words

– abiotic – biotic

Living Things Affect Ecosystem

Plants and animals are the living parts of an ecosystem. Living parts of an ecosystem are biotic, which means they are living.

Living Things Affect Ecosystem

Plants and animals affect the ecosystem in many ways.

HOW?1.Plants are food for

animals, so if a plant dies, there is less food for the animals.

2. Birds and deer spread seeds. This causes the plants to grow in new places.

Non - Living Things Affect Ecosystem

Soil Sunlight Water

Ecosystems have no living parts also. Sunlight, air, water, and

soil are nonliving. These nonliving parts of an ecosystem are called abiotic.

Climate Affect Ecosystem Climate also affect an ecosystem. It affects the soil, the plants that

grow in an ecosystem, and the animals that live in an ecosystem.

How do you think the climate has affected these ecosystems? Think about the soil, animals, and plants that may thrive there.

Review Questions• Describe the difference between abiotic

and biotic. Give examples.• How does climate affect an ecosystem?• How does living and non living things

affect and ecosystem?