Plants And Animals In The Ecosystem

Objectives:

Classify specific kinds of relationships among plants and animals within an ecosystem

Explore food chains

Ecosystems What is an ecosystem? An ecosystem is all the living and

nonliving things in an area. The nonliving parts of an ecosystem are

called abiotic factors. The living parts of an ecosystem are

called biotic factors. Both Abiotic and Biotic factors play a role,

or niche, in their communities. Communities are all populations living in an area.

All ecosystems have the same parts.

Food Chains Within an ecosystem is a food chain. What is a food chain? A food chain is the path energy takes

from producers to consumers to decomposers.

Every population, which is all the organisms in a species living in the same area, need energy to survive.

Where does energy come from? The energy from the sun is stored in food. The energy in food is passed from one

organism to another.

This Is How A Food Chain Works

The Sun passes energy to plants. Plants are producers. They can not make their own food so something has to produce the food for them.

An herbivore, an animal that eats

only plants. An omnivore, an animal that eats both plants and animals, eat the plant.

A Carnivore comes along and eats the herbivore or omnivore.

Carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores are consumers. All three got their energy by consuming other organisms.

It all ends with decomposers such as worms, bacteria, and fungi. Decomposers break down dead organisms into substances that can be used by producers. Meaning the cycle starts all over.

Decomposers

Carnivore

Herbivore or Omnivore

Plants

Sun

Food Chain

Sample Food Chain

Review Can anyone tell me what a predator is? What is the

hunted called? What is the original source of energy in a food

chain? A _______ is the role or activity of an organism in

it’s community. What is a community/population? What is a producer/consumer? What is the relationship between plants and

animals?