Parts of an Ecosystem

Ecosystems

100

an individual living thing

organism

200

a group of the same species of organisms in the same area

population

300

all the different species of organisms in the same area

community

400

all the living and non-living things in an area

ecosystem

Food Webs

100

all the energy in a food web is based on energy from the ______

sun

200

organisms that create their own food through photosynthesis

producers

300

organisms that must eat other organisms to survive

consumers

400

organisms that break down dead and decaying things

decomposers

Organisms

100

an organism's role in its ecosystem

niche

200

the place where an organism lives that provides food, water, and shelter

habitat

300

an organism's role in its ecosystem may change depending on the phase of its __________ __________

life cycle

400

this tool is used to classify organisms based on their characteristics 

dichotomous key

Investigations

100

Henry thinks that earthworms like wet soil better than dry soil. He sets up a box of dirt that has wet soil on one side and dry soil on the other side. He adds earthworms to the box and watches to see if the earthworms move toward the dry side or the wet side and records the data. What is the independent variable in his experiment?

the moisture level of the soil (dry vs. wet)

200

The Virginia Department of Forestry decides to move all of the white-tailed deer in Virginia to the Blue Ridge Mountains. They notice that when the number of deer increases, the number of plants that they like to eat decreases. What is the dependent variable in this investigation?

the number of plants that deer like to eat

300

Trey thinks that the birds in his area like sunflower seeds better than any other food. He sets up a bird feeder that has sunflower seeds, corn, and peanuts in three different sections. He makes sure that he puts the same amount of each type of food in the three sections. When he keeps these amount of food the same, that is a ________________ in his experiment.

constant

400

Kyrie has a creek in her backyard and wants to know if crawfish prefer to live in areas where water is flowing or where water is sitting still, so she counts the number of crawfish in those two areas of the creek. What is the independent variable in this investigation?

the area of the creek - (water flowing vs. sitting still)