Ecosystems
Slow Earth Changes
Definitions
Potpourri
Fossils
100

The living things in an ecosystem are called...

What are biotic factors?

100
The process of rocks breaking apart into smaller pieces.
What is weathering?
100
The low point between two hills.
What is a valley?
100
A high plain where a glacier cut off the top and sides of a mountain through weathering and erosion. It has steep sides.
What is a plateau?
100
Fossils can be plants, animals, or both.
What is both?
200

The nonliving things in an environment are called...

What are abiotic factors?

200
The process of sediment being moved.
What is erosion?
200
Deposition that causes a river or stream to curve.
What is meander?
200
The fertile soil left behind by a glacier.
What is Glacial Till?
200
In order to form a fossil the organism must usually be ______________ quickly after it dies.
What is buried?
300

All the living and nonliving things in an environment.

What is an ecosystem?

300
The type of weathering that occurs when the chemical make up of a rock is changed as a result of acid rain.
What is chemical weathering?
300
When deposition at the end of a river builds up and causes it to break into smaller streams, usually shapes into a triangle.
What is a delta?
300
This kind of slope (steep, shallow, level) will cause the most erosion.
What is steep?
300
____________________ are the remains of a prehistoric organism.
What are fossils?
400

If all of the mice in a forest ecosystem were to die what would happen to the other organisms in the ecosystem?

What is the hawks would starve because they don't have food to eat and the plants that mice eat would overpopulate?

400
The slow rebirth of an ecosystem after it has been destroyed (usually by a natural disaster).
What is succession?
400
Deposition on the sides of a river/stream that builds up the sides to be taller.
What is a levee?
400
When a riverbank overflows and more sediment is deposited on the flat land.
What is a flood plain?
400
How can scientists tell what ancient animals used to eat?
What is there are fossils within fossils when an animal died shortly after eating?
500

Explain one impact rapid earth changes has on an ecosystem.

What is killing animals, destroying habitats, contaminating saltwater and freshwater, etc?

500
How can we tell glaciers have once been on a piece of land?
What is glaciers leave imprints on the ground by moving rocks, trees, and boulders? They also leave scratches in the ground from where they dragged pieces of rock. Glacial landforms (such as lakes) are also formed.
500
Deposition that causes a stream to split into smaller streams and become less steep.
What is an alluvial fan?
500
Fossils often show how animals of long ago were the same or different from animals today. A fossil of a triceratops shows that its body shape and horned nose are like that of a rhino. The triceratops’ teeth indicate that this animal ate plants. Rhinos eat grass. Triceratops were large animals that moved slowly, like the rhino. What can scientists today conclude about the triceratops and the rhino? Explain your thinking by comparing and contrasting the triceratops and rhino.
What is the rhino and the triceratops are related?
500
Put the following events about the formation of a clam fossil in the correct order. A. The soft part of a clam decays B. The mold fills with minerals C. It’s shell leaves a clam-shaped hole in the rock called a mold D. Sediment covers the clam
What is D, A, C, B?
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