All About Ecosystems
An ecosystem consists of all living and nonliving things that exist here.
What is an environment?
Plants are called this because they make or produce their own food.
What are producers?
This produces energy for all living things.
What is sunlight?
This is the movement of worn rocks or soil.
What is erosion?
Two main fossil fuels that are found underground.
What are coal and oil?
This upsets the balance of an ecosystem.
What is any change to one part of the ecosystem?
This occurs when two or more living things need the same things to live.
What is competition?
This is the name for important material needed for all living things.
What are resources?
During this process, green plants take energy from sunlight to make food and oxygen.
What is photosynthesis?
These are scientists who study fossils.
Who are paleontologists?
In addition to air, water sunlight, soil, and landforms, these two things are very important in an ecosystem.
What are plants and animals?
Organisms that break down plant and animal waste.
What are decomposers?
Materials that decomposers break down become these.
What are nutrients for plants?
This animal found in North America changes the environment to improve its habitat and helps some plants and animals while harming others.
What is the beaver?
Scientists learn all about extinct species of plants and animals by comparing plants and animals existing today with these.
What are fossils?
This is a group of living organisms of the same kind living in an area.
What is a population?
This is a living thing that eats only other animals.
What is a carnivore?
This shows the transfer of energy from one organism to another.
What is a food chain?
The introduction of new construction or chemicals to an environment are changes caused by this group of living things.
What are humans?
Bits of rock, sand, shell and other materials that harden into rock are know as these.
What are sediments?
Tundras, rain forests, deserts, grasslands, and forests are all types of ecosystems found on this continent.
What is North Amreica?
These living things eat both plants and animals.
What are omnivores?
This is a system in which the flow of energy branches out in many directions.
What is a food web?
Young trees in a forest might not get enough light and space to grow due to this.
What is competition?
The bones of some animals that were preserved in tar pits became these types of fossils?
What are body fossils?