Chapter 3- Lesson 1

An ecosystem includes all living things (biotic) and nonliving things (abiotic)in an environment.

Examples of biotic factors are flowers, trees, and animals.

Examples of abiotic factors are streams and rocks.

Biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem interact and supply the needs of living things.

Organisms in an ecosystem can be sorted into different populations. Populations are all members of a single species in an area at a given time.

Together, many different populations make up a community. A community includes all the living things in an ecosystem.

The path that energy and nutrients follow in an ecosystem is called a food chain.

Energy flows in one direction in a food chain.

Energy in a food chain starts with the sun. Producers are organisms that use the sun’s energy to make sugar and oxygen. Producers are plants.

A consumer is any animal that eats plants or other animals.

Animals that eat producers directly are called herbivores (squirrels).

Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores (bobcat).

Animals that eat both plants and animals are called omnivores (woodpecker).

Decomposers break down dead or decaying plant and animal material (fungi).

Scavengers are consumers that eat leftover bodies after they have started to rot(vultures).

Q: What general pattern do all food chains follow?

Q: What is the fewest number of links a food chain could have? What is the greatest number?

A food web is a bunch of food chains that have links in common.

A predator is an animal that hunts other animals for food.

Prey are organisms that are eaten by other animals.

An energy pyramid is a diagram that shows the amount of energy available at each level of an ecosystem.

Q: Can one organism be a consumer, omnivore, predator and prey? Explain your answer.

Q: What occurs when a top carnivore is removed from a food web?