Producers
What is a producer?
An organism that makes its own food and energy.
What is a consumer?
What is a decomposer?
An organism that breaks down dead materials (like plants and animals).
Where does all energy come from?
The sun
What is the difference between biotic and abiotic?
Biotic is living things in an ecosystem. Abiotic is non-living things in an ecosystem.
Give three examples of producers.
Answers will vary. Examples: Algae, trees, flowers.
Answers will vary. Examples: Lion, rabbit, tiger, bear, etc.
Answers will vary. Examples: bacteria, fungi, earthworms, mushrooms.
Is a primary consumer going to be a herbivore or carnivore?
Herbivore
What is the difference between predator and prey?
A predator is an organism that must hunt for food. Prey is the organism that is hunted.
What does a producer need for photosynthesis? (Raw Materials)
Sunlight, Carbon Dioxide, Water
Are humans herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores?
Omnivores
Why are decomposers important?
Answers may vary. Examples: they break down waste, they recycle nutrients back into the soil.
What do the arrows of a food chain/food web represent?
Flow of energy.
Define herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.
Herbivore eats plants only. Carnivore eats meat only. Omnivore eats both plants and meat.
Why are producers important in an ecosystem?
Answers may vary. Examples: starts the food chain/web, main source of energy for herbivores, creates oxygen.
Give an example of a predator-prey relationship.
Answers may vary. Examples: zebra and lion, bear and fish, fox and rabbit, shark and sea lions.
What is the difference between decomposers and scavengers?
Decomposers break down dead matter. Scavengers eat dead matter that they find.
Create a food chain on the white board.
Answers will vary.
Give an example of parasitism.
Answers may vary. Example: A tick on a deer.
What would happen if all producers in an ecosystem were to die out?
The ecosystem would slowly die; there would not be a main source of energy/food.
What would happen if a certain species in a food chain/food web died out?
Other animals in the food chain/food web would starve and eventually die out or adapt.
What would happen if decomposers in an ecosystem died out?
Wastes and the remains of dead organisms would pile up and the nutrients within the waste and dead organisms would not be released back into the ecosystem.
Create a food web on the white board. Don't forget the decomposers.
Answers will vary.
Give me 3 examples of habitats (or biomes).
Answers may vary. Examples: rain forest, temperate forest, oceans, wetlands, estuaries, deserts.