Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers
What organism breaks down dead and decaying things into nutrients for the soil?
Decomposers
The arrows in a food chain/web represent what?
The flow of energy
List 2 biotic and 2 abiotic factors each
Biotic - any animal, plant or living thing (past or present)
Abiotic - anything that could never have life (rocks, air, water, fire, light, soil, etc.)
What do we call an organism when there are no more on Earth? (examples - dinosaurs, blue pike fish, black rhinos)
Extinct
Name 3 different types of ecosystem
desert, grassland, forest, freshwater, marine, wetland, tundra, etc.
Organisms that eat other organisms are examples of what?
What is the flow of energy from one organism to another called?
Food Chain
The wolves of Yellowstone were hunted or driven away over 100 years ago. This caused the elk population to greatly grow. What ecosystems term would you use to describe the elk population?
Over-abundant
Name an ecosystem that we have visited this school year.
freshwater or forest ecosystem
What is a producer?
Any organism that makes their own food
What is several food chains overlapping one another and together called?
Food Web
What would happen to the rat population if a farmer uses a pesticide on their crops and why?
The rat population would decrease because there are less insects to eat.
Scientists have been observing a population of foxes that live in a certain area for several years. The population of foxes has increased to 105 and remains stable there. What is the most likely cause why the fox population stays stable at 105?
The resources of the area cannot support more than 105 foxes.
Give 2 examples of a decomposer
bacteria and fungi
Grasses, trees, and grapes are known as what?
Producers
What must be present for a producer to survive in an ecosystem?
Sunlight
What are the 3 possibilities for an organism when there is a change in an ecosystem?
Die, move to another area, or adapt to live with the new change
What organisms would receive less energy if rabbits disappeared from this food web?
Sun -> Grass -> Rabbits -> Hawks
Hawks
Sun -> __?__
any producer/plant
Lions, foxes, snakes, and sharks are all considered what?
Consumers
Steve drew the food chain below to show the flow of energy for the animals of his back yard.
Sun -> grass -> snakes -> mice -> hawks
What is wrong with Steve's food chain?
Mice do not get their energy from snakes;
Mice do not eat snakes
The sugarcane fields of Jamaica used to have many rats. The rats were destroying the sugarcane crops. Tho solve this problem, they introduced the mongoose into the environment. A Mongoose eats rats, snakes, lizards, birds, fruit, and other organisms. What should happen to the sugarcane now and what would happen to lizards in the area?
The sugarcane crops should increase and the lizards should decrease
The wolves of Yellowstone were hunted or driven away over 100 years ago. This caused the elk population to greatly grow. What ecosystems term would you use to describe the wolf population?
Scarcity
Name 1 organism that would fit into this food chain.
Sun ->Water Lily -> ?? -> Heron -> Alligator
Fish, bugs, small mammals/reptiles