Unit B: Chapter 1 Where Living Things Are Found Mrs. Tweedie September 2006
What is an environment? An environment is everything around a living thing.
What is an ecosystem? In an environment, the living and nonliving things that affect each other, or interact, form an ecosystem.
What is a population? A population is a group of the same kind of living things that live in the same place at the same time.
What is a community? A community is all the populations that live in an ecosystem.
What is a habitat? A habitat provides a population with all its needs and includes nonliving things and living things. There are many habitats in an ecosystem.
What is a forest? A forest is an area in which the main plants are trees.
What is a deciduous forest? A deciduous forest is a forest made up of trees that lose and regrow their leaves.
What is a tropical rain forest? Tropical rain forests grow in places such as Hawaii and Costa Rica. These places are hot and wet all year. The trees grow very tall, and their leaves stay green all year.
What are the layers of a rain forest? A tropical rain forest has three main layers.
What is a canopy? The top layer of a tropical rain forest is called the canopy. It is formed by the branches and leaves of the tallest trees.
What is an understory? Below the canopy is the understory. The understory is formed by plants that don’t grow as tall as trees.
What is the forest floor? The forest floor is the lowest layer.
What is a coastal forest? Coastal forests grow where there is a lot of rain. Unlike a tropical rain forest, a coastal forest grows where it does not get too warm or too cold.
What is a coniferous forest? Coniferous forests contain mostly trees that stay green all year called conifers or evergreens.
What is a desert? A desert is an ecosystem found where there is very little rainfall. Most deserts get less than 10 inches of rain each year.
What is a grassland? A grassland is an ecosystem made up of large, flat areas of land that are covered with grass.
What is saltwater? Oceans and seas contain salt water, or water that has a lot of salt in it.
What is fresh water? Fresh water is water that has very little salt in it. Lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, and some marshes are freshwater ecosystems.