Ecosystems Short Answer
| # | Answer |
|---|---|
| 1 | An ecosystem is a community of living things and the nonliving parts of their environment interacting together. |
| 2 | Two living parts of an ecosystem are plants and animals. |
| 3 | Two nonliving parts of an ecosystem are water and sunlight. |
| 4 | Producers make their own food, usually through photosynthesis, and form the base of many food chains. |
| 5 | Consumers get energy by eating other organisms. |
| 6 | Decomposers break down dead organisms and waste, returning nutrients to the soil or water. |
| 7 | Grass is one example of a producer. |
| 8 | A rabbit is one example of a herbivore. |
| 9 | A hawk is one example of a carnivore. |
| 10 | A food chain is a sequence that shows how energy moves from one organism to another as organisms eat and are eaten. |
| 11 | A food web is a group of interconnected food chains in an ecosystem. |
| 12 | Food webs show more feeding relationships, so they are more realistic than a single food chain. |
| 13 | A habitat is the place where an organism lives and gets what it needs to survive. |
| 14 | A niche is an organism's role or job in its ecosystem, including how it gets food and interacts with others. |
| 15 | A habitat is where an organism lives, while a niche is what it does in that place. |
| 16 | Biodiversity is the variety of different living organisms in an area or ecosystem. |
| 17 | Biodiversity helps ecosystems stay stable and recover from changes or disturbances. |
| 18 | A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same area. |
| 19 | A community is all the different populations living and interacting in an area. |
| 20 | A population includes one species, while a community includes multiple species living together. |
| 21 | Biotic factors are living things, and abiotic factors are nonliving parts of the environment. |
| 22 | A lack of water can reduce plant growth and limit the animals that depend on those plants. |
| 23 | Sunlight provides the energy that producers use to make food through photosynthesis. |
| 24 | Energy moves from the Sun to producers and then to consumers and decomposers. |
| 25 | There is less energy available at higher trophic levels, so fewer top predators can be supported. |
| 26 | A trophic level is a feeding position in a food chain or food web. |
| 27 | Energy flows in one direction, from the Sun through organisms and eventually is lost as heat. |
| 28 | Organisms use energy for life processes, and much of it is released as heat. |
| 29 | The carbon cycle is the movement of carbon through the atmosphere, living things, oceans, and rocks. |
| 30 | Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and store the carbon in their tissues. |
| 31 | A limiting factor is anything that restricts the size of a population or the growth of an ecosystem. |
| 32 | Food supply is one example of a limiting factor. |
| 33 | Competition can reduce access to resources and limit population growth. |
| 34 | Predation is a relationship in which one organism hunts, kills, and eats another organism. |
| 35 | Predators can keep prey populations from growing too large and help maintain species balance. |
| 36 | Succession is the gradual change in the types of organisms living in an area over time. |
| 37 | Primary succession begins on bare rock or land with no soil, while secondary succession occurs where soil is already present after a disturbance. |
| 38 | A wildfire may remove many organisms but leave the soil, allowing new plants and animals to return over time. |
| 39 | Decomposers break down dead matter and release nutrients that plants and other organisms can reuse. |
| 40 | If one part of an ecosystem changes, such as a drop in producer numbers, it can affect consumers, predators, and the balance of the whole food web. |