5.1 Ecosystems Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
➢ It is a natural system made up of plants, animals and the enivronment
What is a biotic component?
➢ They are the living features of an ecosystem - such as plant and fish
What is an abiotic component?
➢ They are the non-living environmental factors such as climate - temperature, rainfall, soil, water and light
What are the 2 types of scales that ecosystem can be defined by?
➢ A local small-scale ecosystem - It can be a pond or a woodland
➢ A global-scale ecosystem - can be a tropical rainforest or deciduous woodland
What is a producer?
➢ They are biological organisms that covert energy from sunlight into sugars - such as glucose
What is a consumer?
➢ They get energy from the sugars produced by the producers - such as a pond snail
What is a decomposer?
➢ Decomposers break down plant and animal materials and return the nutrients to the soil
What is a food chain?
➢ It is a chain that show the direct links between producers and consumers
What is a food web?
➢ It shows all the connections between producers and consumers in a rather more complex way
What are the 2 main sources of nutrients?
➢ Rainwater which washes chemicals out of the atmosphere
➢ Weathered rock realises nutrients into the soil
How can decomposers recycle nutrients?
➢ When plants/animals die, decomposers can help make the nutrients inside available for the soil
