Ecosystems

1. Ecosystems

2. Setting Up Your Journal • Title page • ‘Ecosystems’ should be written on the page and you should include illustrations.

3. Table of Contents • Page 4 – Essential Questions • Pages 5-8 - Vocabulary • Essential Questions • In what ways are environmental systems connected? • How do changing environmental systems affect organisms, including people? • How does the location on Earth impact the characteristics of an ecosystem?

4. Vocabulary • You need to have 4 pages for this section. • Write the word ‘vocabulary’ on the top of each page. • Your first 2 vocabulary words will be: • 1. Ecosystem • 2. Biome

5. Ecosystem: all the populations of living and non living things in an environment and the interaction among them • Biome: a large scale ecosystem • Biomes Worksheet • Read and highlight information • Glue into journal on page 10 • Add to Table of Contents

6. Brain Pop video • Land Biomes videos • Rainforest video • All about the rainforest • Jot down notes while watching the video

7. Deciduous (Temperate) Forest • Average temperatures and average amount of rainfall • Exists on every continent, except Antarctica and Africa • Trees shed their leaves each year • Multiple seasons occur due to the amount of sunlight • Several layers of plants can be found here • Tall trees (which create a canopy) let light reach the bottom where bushes and smaller trees grow (unlike in the rainforest) • These plants provide a variety of habitats for animal life

8. Taiga Biome • Watch the video and listen for key elements • Jot down notes • Tundra Biome • Watch the video and listen for key elements • Jot down notes

9. Grasslands/Savanna Biome video • Grasslands, Savanna, Prairie • also known as Savanna(Africa) or Prairies(North America) • mainly have grasses growing and few trees • little rain • long slender leaves allow little water loss in plants • Write down other info you found important from the video

10. Desert Biome video • Deserts • soil and air are dry • little rain • sun shines most of the time • temperature hot in day (summer) and can be 
freezing at night (winter) • few plants: cactus and bushes • snakes, lizards, few mammals like rabbits • Write down other info you found important from the video

11. Mr. Parr's Biome song • Terrestrial = land • Aquatic = water • Aquatic Ecosystems • Learn about the difference between a freshwater ecosystem and a saltwater ecosystem

12. Water Biomes • Water-based regions home to a unique group of living things.

13. Vocabulary • Organism: an individual plant, animal, or single-celled life form • Individual: a single organism in an environment • Population: individuals of the same kind living in the same environment • Community: all the populations of organisms living together

14. Wetland • Also known as swamp, marsh, or bog • Land covered with shallow water for all or part of the year • Water comes from rain, melted snow, underground spring • Marsh-grassy with reeds and cattails near river or lake • Bog- found in cool climate, spongy peat moss • Swamp- forested wetland full of trees and shrubs • Everglades Brainpop video • Bill Nye the Science Guy – Wetlands

15. River • A ribbon of water that weaves over land • Constantly moving and changing • Can carve canyons and form waterfalls • Water comes from melted snow, springs, rainwater, underground • Water flows downhill • Underwater plants anchor in the river bottom • Water level drops and rises depending on rain fall. • Rivers Brainpop video

16. Vocabulary • Habitat: a place in an ecosystem where a population lives • Niche: the role each population has in a habitat

17. Lake • A pool of freshwater that fills low spots in land • Form from mountain snow, natural springs, along rivers, or behind dams • Trees line the sides of the lake • Water lilies grow on top of the water • Tall grasses are on the water edge

18. Estuary • Where a river meets the ocean • Part wet part dry • Forms brackish water (fresh water and salty water mixed) • Found on edges of continents and islands • Experience high and low tides • Mud is full of nutrients

19. Ocean • Covers 75% of earths surface • Very salty • Largest water biome • Waves move water and has high and low tide • Sea weed and algae grow • Deep water gets no light so few producers and cold temperatures

20. Vocabulary • Producers: organisms that use sunlight to make the food they need from carbon dioxide and water • Consumers: all organisms in an ecosystem that eat to get the energy they need • Decomposers: consumers that break down the tissues of dead organisms

21. Biotic and Abiotic Factors • Abiotic: a non-living organism • Biotic: a living organism • ‘A’ = not • ‘Bio’ = living • http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/asset/lsps07_int_ecosystem/

22. Venn Diagram -Whale -Coral -Mushroom -Snail -Paper -Trees -Steak -Mold -Hair -Grapes -Athlete’s Foot -Salad -Grass -Water -Glass -Sand -Plastic -Dirt -Gold -Oxygen -Rocks -Temperature -Clouds Desert Tundra Ocean

23. Comprehending • 1. If all of the rocks ( A ) are removed from a desert ecosystem, what would happen to the population of rock dwelling lizards ( B ) and in turn the animals which eat them? • 2. A ten mile area of trees ( B ) is removed from the tropical rainforest. How will this affect the amount of water( A ) and the amount of oxygen ( A ) in the area?

24. Producers • A Producer is a living thing that makes its own food. • Plants, grasses, shrubs, and trees are examples of producers. • Other examples include algae and bacteria. • Plants use the energy in sunlight to make or produce their own food.

25. Consumers • Animals and people can’t produce their own food. • A Consumer is a living thing that gets energy by eating other living things. • All animals are consumers.

26. Consumers Continued • There are three types of consumers • Herbivores: consumers that eat only or mostly plants. • Mice, rabbits, deer, and insects. • Carnivores: consumers that eat only or mostly animals. • Sharks, walruses, cats, lions, foxes • Omnivores: consumers that eat both plants and animals. • Pigs, bears, raccoons, and humans.

27. Decomposers • Living things give off waste material. • A decomposer is a living thing that gets energy by breaking down wastes and dead plants and animals. • Decomposers break the material down into simpler materials which become part of the soil that helps plants grow. • Examples: bacteria and fungi such as mushrooms.

28. The Flow of Energy in Ecosystems • http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/ecosystems/food-chains.htm

29. Food Chains • A food chain is a model that shows the path of energy from one living thing to the next. • If one kind of organism is removed from this food chain, all the other organisms in the food chain will be affected.

30. Food Web • A food chain shows the flow of energy from one living thing to the next. • Several food chains connect to form a food web. • http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/ecosystems/food-webs.htm • Food Chains and Webs - Brain Pop

31. Example of a Food Web

32. Energy Pyramids • Energy moves through ecosystems. • It goes from small animals to big animals to the biggest animals. • As each animal eats it stores only the energy it gets from the plant or animal it eats. • The bottom level always contains producers and holds the most energy.

33. Energy Pyramids Continued • Each higher level contains less energy and fewer living things. • The carnivores are at the top of the energy pyramid and contain least amount of energy. • https://www.brainpop.com/science/energy/energypyramid/preview.weml

34. Each level is reduced by 10 %. Energy Pyramids

35. Competition • Competition: the contest among organisms for the limited resources of an ecosystem • Organisms compete for water, food, shelter, and sunlight • Every animal has adaptations that help it compete for resources • Camouflage (or patterns of body color) and hunting in packs are two examples of adaptations • In some communities, animals live together and share resources. These animals do not directly compete with one another. • Study Jams - Animal Adaptations

36. Symbiosis • Symbiosis: a long term relationship between different kinds of organisms • Different kinds of organisms often live closely together for most or all of their lives. • Symbiosis may benefit both organisms or it may only benefit one and not the other (commensalism) • Parasitism is when one species grows stronger by harming another species • A relationship where both organisms benefit is called mutualism. • Flowers and bees and cleaner fish and sharks are both examples of mutualism. • Symbiosis - Study Jams • Symbiosis - Brain Pop

37. Instincts and Learned Behaviors • Some animal behavior is inherited and some is learned. • Instinct: a behavior that an organism inherits • Shared by an entire population (or some only for males and some only for females) • Examples include building shelters and finding mates • Squirrels instinctively bury acorns and Canadian geese fly south for the winter

38. Learned Behaviors: behaviors animals learn from their parents, not inherit from them. • Young lions must learn hunting skills from adult lions in order to survive • Birds learn what kind of nests to build from adult birds

39. Inherited Traits • A trait is a quality or characteristics of a living thing. • A behavior is a way in which a living thing acts or responds to its surroundings. • You inherit the color of your eyes and hair and the shape of your nose. • If you can roll your tongue you were born with this trait. • These traits are passed from parents to offspring. • Plants inherit ways of responding to their surrounding such as roots grow down and toward water. Stems grow up toward the sun.

40. Acquired Traits • Not all traits are inherited. • An acquired trait is a characteristic that a living thing gets during its lifetime. • Acquire=to get • A scar is a physical trait that is acquired. • Many acquired traits are learned behaviors. • Example: young chimpanzees learn to use sticks as tools to get food. • You were not born knowing how to speak or read a book.

41. Inherited Traits and Acquired Traits