ecosystems-g5 Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is all the biotic and the abiotic parts of an area. It is a natural system made up of plants, animals and the environment.
What are biotic parts?
Biotic components are the living features of an ecosystem such as plants and fish.
What are abiotic parts?
Abiotic components are non living environmental factors such as climate, soil, temperature and light.
What are small scale ecosystems?
Pond, hedgerow or woodland
What are global scale ecosystems?
Tropical rain-forests, deciduous woodland. Global ecosystems are called biomes.
What are producers?
Producers convert energy from the environment into sugars. The most obvious producers are plants that convert energy from the sun by photosynthesis, e.g grass.
What are consumers?
Consumers get energy from the sugars produced by the producers. A pond snail is a good example of a consumer because it eats plants. Consumers can eat producers or other consumers to get energy, e.g rabbits eat grass and foxes eat rabbits.
What are decomposers?
Decomposers break down plant and animal material and return the nutrients to the soil. Bacteria and fungi are good examples of decomposers.
What is a food chain?
A food chain shows the direct links between producers and consumers in the form of a simple line
What is a food web?
A food web shows all the connections between producers and consumers in a rather more complex way.
What is a nutrient cycle?
Nutrients are food that are used by plants and animals to grow. There are two main sources of nutrients:
-rainwater washes chemicals out of the atmosphere
-weathered rock releases nutrients into the soil
When dead material decomposes, nutrients are released into the soil. The nutrients are then taken up from the soil by plants. The plants may be eaten by consumers. When the plants or consumers die, the nutrients are returned to the soil. This transfer of nutrients is the nutrient cycle.
What are the features of a freshwater pond ecosystem?
Pond bottom- little oxygen or light. Plenty of shelter(rotting plants and stones) and food. Decomposers and scavangers live here.
Mid water- animals breathe through gills or skin. Fish are the main predators. Food is found on the surface in the pond.
Above the pond surface- birds and animals breathe oxygen. Food is found in or on the water, or in the margins.
Pond surface- plenty of oxygen and light. Animals breathe through their gills, lungs or skin.
Pond margin- plenty of oxygen and light here. Plenty of shelter for the plants are insects, for small animals to eat.
What are the impacts of change on an ecosystem?
Ecosystems can take hundreds in not thousands of years to develop. If an ecosystem is to be sustainable it needs to be in balance. If there is a change to one of the components it will have a knock on effect for the rest of the ecosystem.
What causes change to ecosystems?
Changes to an ecosystem can occur naturally or reult from human activities. Change can take place on different scales:
global scale changes such as climate change
local scale changes, such as changes to an habitat e.g when a hedge is removed.
What effects could natural changes have on an ecosystem?
Ecosystems can adapt to slow natural changes with few harmful side effects. But rapid changes can have serious impacts. Extreme weather events like droughts can be devastating to ponds and lakes. They could dry up in places, which changes the edge of the pond environment. Plants will dry out and die. Fish starved of oxygen, might not survive.
