Lesson 1
What are all the populations that live in the same place called?
A community
What is a consumer?
A living thing that eats other living things
To sleep through the winter means to?
Hibernate
Desert snakes eat kangaroo rats. What do you think would happen to the population of rats if the population of snakes grew larger? Why?
The population of rats would grow smaller because more would be eaten.
Describe how a raccoon in a marsh interacts with a living part and a nonliving part of the ecosystem.
The raccoon eats small animals. It drinks from the marsh.
Living things of the same kind that live in the same place is called what?
Population
What is a producer?
A living thing that makes its own food
To move means to?
Migrate
Distinguish herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore.
A herbivore only eats plants (grasshopper/cow). A omnivore eats plants and other animals (mouse/humans). A carnivore only eats other animals (eagle/coyote).
Describe an adaptation that helps an animal survive seasonal changes in its ecosystem.
Some birds migrate to warmer places during winter.
What is an ecosystem?
Living and nonliving parts interacting in an environment
What is a living thing that breaks down waste, dead plant and animal matter?
A trait that helps a living thing survive in its environment is called?
An adaption
Forest fires can change ecosystems. Describe a negative and a positive effect of a forest fire.
A negative effect is that a forest fire destroys many trees, other plants, and animal homes. A positive effect is that plants that are not burned will have more space to grow.
Give an example from the book of a decomposer.
Mushroom
True or False: Living parts of an ecosystem do not depend on nonliving parts. Explain.
False: Living things depend on nonliving parts to supply water and sometimes shelter
True or False: Decomposers get their energy directly from the sun. Explain.
False: Decomposers break down dead animals and plants and use their stored up energy
Give one way a groundhog digging a burrow can help an ecosystem. Give one way a groundhog digging a burrow can harm an ecosystem.
The groundhog mixes the soil as it digs, which improves the soil and helps plants that grow there. The groundhog can harm trees growing there if it damages the trees' roots.
What do sunlight, soil, air, and water all have in common?
They are nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
True or False: In regard to how changes in the environment affect the living things, changes harm some living things and benefit others.
True or False: Populations in a community depend on each other. Explain.
True: Each population contributes something to the community.
True or False: A consumer in a food web eats all the producers in that food web. Explain.
False: A consumer in a food web only eats some of the other producers in the food web.
Suppose that a cool, rainy ecosystem has a very hot, dry summer. Identify two changes that might occur in the ecosystem.
Plants that need a lot of water might not grow. Animals that feed on the plants might be forced to leave the ecosystem or die out.
Some trees shed their leaves before winter. What is this an example of?
An adaptation
Most humans are what kind of consumer?
Most humans are omnivores