Chapter 1 Lesson 4

Students will:  Explore how all the living and nonliving parts of an environment interact.  Describe how the living organisms interact with each other and with non-living parts of an environment.

 Ecology:  The study of how living and non-living things interact.

 Ecosystem:  The living and non-living things in an environment and all their interactions.

 Each ecosystem has its own community.  The community is the living parts of the ecosystem.  A terrarium’s community can have small plants and animals.  A desert community includes beautiful cacti and deadly scorpions.

 Communities can be divided into different populations.  A population is made of only one type of organism.

 Each organism’s home is called a habitat.  A whale’s habitat is the ocean.  A termite’s habitat is a termite nest.

 What makes one ecosystem different from another?  In many cases water is the key.  Only a small number of species of plants and animals can survive with little water.

 Another important resource that can affect an ecosystem is soil.  Areas with soil rich in nutrients can support many plants.  Few plants grow in areas with soil that does not have many nutrients.

 The types of plants and animals that live in a particular ecosystem depend on a combination of these things.  A woodland forest has enough rich soil and enough water for many grasses to grow.  However, a woodland forest does not have enough sunshine which is needed by most types of grasses. Why?  The sun’s light is blocked by the trees and the forest floor is dark.

 Climate differences produce a variety of ecosystems.  Climate is the long-term weather pattern of an area.

 Long, dark, and very cold winters.  Few trees.  Ground is frozen for most of the year, and trees can’t grow.  Not easy to survive in these very cold places.  Most tundra regions are in the Arctic.  There is a small amount of tundra on parts of the Antarctic that are not covered with ice.  Tundra is also found on mountains at high altitudes and it’s called alpine tundra.

 In the summer, energy from the Sun thaws the top surface of the ground.  Plants grow, but trees can't because the ground is frozen a few inches down.  Lots of animals go to the tundra in the summer.  Some even stay through the cold winter!

 It is located south of the tundra region.  Very cold winters & cool summers.  More rain or snow falls than in the tundra.  Many fir and spruce trees grow in this region.  Yellowstone, Sequoia, and Yosemite are national parks in the Taiga regions of the United States.

 Cold winters & hot summers.  More rain or snow falls than in the taiga.  Rich soil.  Grassland biomes are large, rolling terrains of grasses, flowers and herbs.  We may know this areas as the “prairie.”

 Very hot days all year.  Very little rain.  Plants and animals adapted to conserve water.  There are four desert in the western U.S.

 Hot and rainy all year.  8 to 14 feet of rain per year.  Poor soil.  Variety of plants and animals.  Most tropical rain forests are located near the equator.

 Mild winters and summers.  Plenty of rain or snow.  Tree lose their leaves in winter.  Located in the eastern United States, Canada, Europe, parts of Russia, China, and Japan.

 The word "deciduous" means exactly what the leaves on these trees do: change color in autumn, fall off in the winter, and grow back again in the spring.

 The ocean biome is the largest of all the biomes.  Approximately 70% of the earth is covered in water and most of that is saltwater.  Scientists divide the ocean into different biomes depending on the temperature and amount of light.  The ocean is the only biome where insect do not live.

 Many organisms live where the water level changes from high tide to low tide.  The plants and animals that live in this biome have interesting adaptations.  Some organisms make the shallow waters of the shore their home.  Others live on land, but have adjusted to higher levels of salt in their environment.

 This area gets plenty of light.  It is rich in nutrients and home to many populations.  Clams, crabs, barnacles, flounders, mussels, oysters, sea cucumbers and sting rays live close to shore

 Ecosystems change as the amount of light decreases with depth.  Ninety percent of the ocean is in the midnight zone.  It is entirely dark—there is no light.  The water pressure is extreme. The temperature is near freezing.  Because there is no light in this zone, some animals don't have eyes. There are no plants in this zone.

 Many habitats are along the shore and river bottom.  Although there are many rivers and streams, these sources of running water account for a very small portion of the earth's total surface, just.3%.

 Many habitats are at the shore, on the surface water, and under the water.  Some lakes are the source for some rivers.  Important rivers, most often, originate from lakes.  Some rivers end in lakes.  Lakes can range in size from small ponds to huge bodies of water such the Great Lakes in the U.S.

 Within a community, each member of a team has its own job to do.  There are three different types of team members:  Producer  Consumer  Decomposers

 Producers are important to many parts of the ecosystem.  Without producers there would be no way for other organisms to survive.  Consumers and decomposers would not have a valuable source of energy.

 You can tell most producers by their green color (chloroplasts).  Producers capture light energy from the Sun and transform it into food.  They make food by using water, carbon dioxide in the air, and the Sun’s energy.  Producers use only some of the food they make and the rest is stored.

 Other members of the community eat producers or organisms that have eaten producers.  Without producers there would be no way for other organisms to survive.  Consumers and decomposers would not have a source of energy.

 Producers also affect nonliving parts of the ecosystem.  Plant roots hold the soil in place.  Other producers provide shelter for other consumers and producers.  Most producers contribute to the air that we breathe.

 Producers are only the beginning of the food chain.  A food chain is the steps in which organisms get the food they need to survive.  Producers make their own food.  Consumers and decomposers must get food from producers or other consumers.

 Organisms that eat food are consumers.  They use the food that producers make, or they eat other organisms.  Animals and some one- celled organisms are consumer.  In order to stay alive, consumers must get food from other organisms.

 There are three types of consumers.  Herbivores: consumers that eat only plants.  Carnivores: consumers that eat only meat.  Omnivores: consumers that eat both plants and animals.

 When plants and animals die they become food for decomposers.  Decomposers break down living and dead matter into simple chemicals that they use for food.  The chemicals left behind by decomposers are recycled (used over and over again.  Sowbugs are usually the first decomposers under a rotting tree stump.

 They can include bacteria, and some kinds of fungi which includes mold and yeast.  Can also include worms and snails.

 It shows how energy is passed from the Sun to producers, consumers, and decomposers.  In any ecosystem many food chains overlap. Different food chains may include some of the same organisms.  Several consumers may all eat the same kind of plant or animals.  When this happens, the food chains form a “Food Web.”