Ecosystems Flashcards
What is a ecosystem?
Ecosystems are made up of living and non-living things in a specific area. The organisms in ecosystems can be classified based on their roles
What is a producer ?
Anything that uses light energyfrom the sun to make their own food
What is a consumer?
They can’t make their own food. Instead they get their energy by comsuming other organisms
What are decomposers?
An organism such as a bacterium or fungus, that breaks down dead tissue, which is than recycled to the environment
Role of decomposers
They’re crucial for the ecosystem function of nutrient cycling
Through decomposition, nutrients are put back into the soil.
Plants take up these nutrients as food. These plants may go on to be eaten by consumers.
When plants or consumers die, the nutrients are returned to the soil.
Food chain
Shows what eats what in a biological community
Food web
Food web show how several food chains overlap with each other
Tundra
- Found at high lattitudes in northen Europe, canada
- Winters are very cold and summers are brief and little rainfall
- hardly any trees
- permafrost
Polar
- found around the north and south pole
- cold and icy
- dark fpr several months each so growing season is very short
Taiga
- found between 50-60 N
- Winters are cold and dry and summers and mild and moist
- trees are coniferous and evergreen
Grassland
- Savannah are found between the tropics
- dry and wet seasons rainfall is low
- most vegetation is are grassses with a few trees
- temerature grasslands are found at high latitude
Temperate deciduous forest
- mainly found in the mid lattitudes with 4 seasons
- rainfallall year round
- decidious trees lose their leaves in winter to cope with cooler weather