Vocabulary
Organisms that make their own food and release oxygen
Producers
Plants eat soil. True or False.
false
Where do producers get their energy from?
The Sun
What are three kinds of decomposers?
worms, mushrooms, mold, fungi
Carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores are all types of organisms that are called...
consumers
organisms that break down waste and dead material into nutrients for plants
decomposers
Plants take in _________ from the air and release ______________ back into the air.
Plants take in CARBON DIOXIDE from the air and release OXYGEN back into the air.
What do the arrows in a food web represent?
The transfer or flow of energy between organisms.
Ex: A squirrel eats acorns from an oak tree.
So, we would draw an arrow from the oak tree to the squirrel.
Do cold temperatures cause mold to grow faster or slower?
Slower
When someone says or writes an idea, it is called a...
claim
Where does all of the energy in an ecosystem come from?
The sun
This would happen if you put tape on the stomata on the leaves of plants
The plant would die because it isn't getting air.
In an ecosystem, how are food webs and food chains different?
Food webs show the relationship between many different food chains in a single ecosystem.
What evidence do you have that mold is a decomposer from our mold terrarium experiment?
The food got smaller and/or decomposed.
Would a carnivore go extinct without the sun? Why or why not?
Yes, a carnivore would go extinct. Carnivores get their energy from the sun because they eat animals that eat plants. Those animals depend on the sun to give energy to the plants that they eat.
Define nutrients
Things needed for an organism to grow and be healthy
The main thing plants use to grow
Air. A plant cannot grow without air. It needs the carbon dioxide from the air in order to grow.
What would cause the predator population of an ecosystem to increase?
An increase in prey populations
How does a pond "clean itself" unlike a fish tank that needs to be cleaned by humans?
Ponds have decomposers that break down waste or dead organisms.
In one of the Mystery Science videos, a scientist planted a tree in a pot with soil. After two years, the tree grew a lot and gained a lot of weight. What happened with the weight of the soil after the two years were over?
The weight of the soil barely changed at all, because plants use some nutrients from the soil, but do not actually "eat" soil.
What are the three main types of consumers? What do they eat?
Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, and omnivores eat plants AND meat.
Name two reasons why decomposers play an important role in an ecosystem.
Decomposers break down dead plants and animals and keep all those things from piling up and taking up space. They release carbon dioxide into the air that plants need to grow. They also release nutrients back into the soil that plants use.
Which pair of organisms need to switch places in order for this food chain to be correct?
grass-->fox-->rabbit-->wolf
fox and rabbit
How exactly do mushroom roots break down dead plant material?
Mushroom roots release a liquid that breaks down the dead plant material.
Scientists release a large number of robins into an ecosystem as part of an experiment. Robins love to eat worms and crickets. Worms and crickets are decomposers. What will happen to this ecosystem when the robins start living there?
Dead leaves will pile up because the robins will eat a lot of the decomposers in the ecosystem.
Remember, crickets and worms are decomposers. Without them, dead leaves will pile up.