What is an ecosystem?
What are the three components (parts) of an ecosystems?
The living things, ________________ and their ____________________.
non-living things, interactions/relationships
_____________________ are organisms that make their own glucose (food) using sunlight through the process of photosynthesis.
Producers (or, autotrophs)
________________ make their own food.
Plants/Producers
Limiting factors are things that _______________ the growth of a population.
slow/stop/restrict
The energy used by living things in an ecosystem originates from _______________.
the sun
__________________ break down dead organisms, returning the matter in the dead organisms back to the environment,
Decomposers
__________ is cycled through an ecosystem in the following way:
producer --> consumers --> decomposers --> back to producers
Matter
(like carbon, oxygen, glucose, proteins, etc.)
_______________ is the maximum population size an environment can support.
Carrying capacity
All the living things of the same species that live in an ecosystem is a _______________
Population
Primary consumers are organisms that eat ____________________.
producers
Energy moves one direction through an ecosystem. Every organism gets energy from their food, uses it to stay alive, and releases most of it in the form of _________.
heat
Name a natural threat to ecosystems.
Many possible answers...some are: hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfire, earthquakes, floods, volcano eruption...
All the different populations of living things that live together in the same ecosystem is a _____________.
community.
An organism is able to store only _______ of the energy that was in its food.
10%
A _________ is usually a predator and is more important to the ecosystem because it regulates the other population sizes.
keystone species
Energy is passed from one organism to another when _____________.
_____________ hunt and eat other animals, while _____________ eat only plants/producers.
Predators, herbivores
In a simple food chain, grasshoppers eat grass, and mice eat grasshoppers. Which population would have the most biomass, and which would have the least biomass?
grass has the most biomass and mice have the least biomass
Name a human-caused threat to ecosystems.
Many possible answers...some are: destroying habitats to build or farm, burning fossil fuels, dumping waste and pollution...