EcosystemsStandards
5.L.2 Understand the interdependence of plants and animals with their ecosystem 5.L.2.1 Compare the characteristics of several common ecosystems, including estuaries and salt marshes, oceans, lakes and ponds, forests, and grasslands. 5.L.2.2 Classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve: producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors). 5.L.2.3 Infer the effects that may result from the interconnected relationship of plants and animals to their ecosystem. |
Vocabulary
ecosystem - An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area, interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate and atmosphere)
community - A community is made up of all the individual animal species living within a specific geographical area. For example, in a tide pool the community would be the sea stars, crabs, barnacles, algae.
population - All members of a species that live in a given ecosystem are called a population. (i.e. all the squirrels or all the oak trees or all the bears)
habitat - A habitat is the place where a population lives.
abiotic – non-living components in an ecosystem
biotic – living components in an ecosystem
organism - Organisms are living aspects of an ecosystem. They can either be classified as a population (all the same species) or a community (all different species).
food web – the feeding relationships between organisms
energy pyramid – a graphical model of the energy flow in a community
plankton – microscopic organisms that float freely with oceanic currents and in other bodies of water
food chain – the sequence of who eats whom in a community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition
producers – Plants are producers. This is because they produce their own food!
consumers – organisms that eat other organisms (plants or animals) to obtain the energy they need
decomposers – the last stop on the food chain; decomposers break down dead matter and put the nutrients back into the soil so they can be used by producers (fungi and bacteria are decomposers)
photosynthesis – a process in which the energy in sunlight is stored.
interconnected – to somehow be connected with each other
algae - a simple non-flowering plant without leaves…seaweed
community - A community is made up of all the individual animal species living within a specific geographical area. For example, in a tide pool the community would be the sea stars, crabs, barnacles, algae.
population - All members of a species that live in a given ecosystem are called a population. (i.e. all the squirrels or all the oak trees or all the bears)
habitat - A habitat is the place where a population lives.
abiotic – non-living components in an ecosystem
biotic – living components in an ecosystem
organism - Organisms are living aspects of an ecosystem. They can either be classified as a population (all the same species) or a community (all different species).
food web – the feeding relationships between organisms
energy pyramid – a graphical model of the energy flow in a community
plankton – microscopic organisms that float freely with oceanic currents and in other bodies of water
food chain – the sequence of who eats whom in a community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition
producers – Plants are producers. This is because they produce their own food!
consumers – organisms that eat other organisms (plants or animals) to obtain the energy they need
decomposers – the last stop on the food chain; decomposers break down dead matter and put the nutrients back into the soil so they can be used by producers (fungi and bacteria are decomposers)
photosynthesis – a process in which the energy in sunlight is stored.
interconnected – to somehow be connected with each other
algae - a simple non-flowering plant without leaves…seaweed