Ecosystems
What is an ecosystem?
A community of interacting living and nonliving things.
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is an order of animals that eat each other.
A food web is overlapping food chains.
Define Predator and Prey.
A Predator is the hunter and a prey is what is hunted.
What is it called if 2 animals want to eat the same thing?
Competition.
What is it called when 2 organisms benefit from each other?
Mutualism.
Name at least 3 resources needed in an ecosystem.
Food, water, air, shelter, temperature.
What makes up the largest part of a food web and supplies the most energy?
Producers.
What hunts an apex predator.
Nothing.
Name two specific animals that might compete for the same food.
Hawk and and Owl compete for a mouse.
Hummingbird and bee compete for flower nectar.
Tell two specific animals that help each other benefit in mutualism.
Carp and Hippo.
Oxpecker and Hippo / Buffalo / Rhino / Large Mammals.
Clown fish and Sea Anemone.
Prairie Dogs and Plover.
What produces 40% of our air?
The rainforest.
What is a decomposer?
An organism that eats decaying matter.
Name at least 2 levels of the food web pyramid after Producers.
Primary Consumers.
Secondary Consumers.
Tertiary Consumers.
What must an ecosystem be like to support the organisms that live there?
Balanced.
Have food, water, shelter, air, the right temperatures.
Why is neither organism harmed in mutualism?
They help each other.
They benefit from each other.
What is the difference between biotic and abiotic?
Biotic is living things.
Abiotic is nonliving things.
What 2 things do plants produce through photosynthesis?
Oxygen and Sugar.
What would happen if a habitat had more predators than prey?
The predators would die; they'd decrease in population.
Name at least 2 reasons a habitat might become unbalanced.
weather, disease, snow, hot or cold temperatures, drought, animals that intervene.
Why is mutualism important?
Because both organisms benefit.
When an ecosystem is interrupted, what three choices do organisms have?
Move.
Die.
Adapt.
How are animals and plants dependent on each other?
Animals are consumers and depend on plants for survival.
Define Carnivore, Herbivore, and Omnivore.
Carnivore- meat eater.
Herbivore- eats plants.
Omnivore- eats both meat and plants.
Name two things animals compete for?
The same prey/food.
Where they drink water.
Habitat.
Why is mutualism important?
Why would a human and bacteria in our gut be mutualistic? What help does each one give?
Bacteria in our gut helps us digest our food in exchange for a suitable environment for the bacteria.