Sustaining ecosystems Flashcards
Ecosystem
Unit consisting of biotic (plants and animals) and abiotic (climate and soil) components
Producers
Rely on sunlight to produce food e.g. plants
Consumers
Rely on producers for food and also other consumers
Decomposers
Get their energy by breaking down dead producers/consumers/fallen leaves e.g. fungi and bacteria
Foodchain
What eats what
Foodweb
Lots of food chains and how they overlap
Interdependence
Parts of an ecosystem relying on each other
Example of interdeoendence
Hot, dry summer - less berry bushes - fewer berries for birds in winter - numbers of sparrows and thrushes fall - no food for sparrow hawks, number of sparrow hawks fall
Where are coral reefs found?
30 degrees N & S of the equator
Where are grasslands found?
Savannah - between the tropics
Temperate - at mid-latitudes
Where are temperate forests found?
At mid-latitudes
Where are tropical rain forests found?
Closely around the equator
Where are hot deserts found?
15 - 30 degrees N & S of the equator
Where are the polar regions found?
N & S poles
Characteristics of polar regions
Climate: Cold, low rainfall, clearly defined seasons
Plants: few plant (mosses and lichens - plants don’t grow very tall)
Animals: few species (polar bears and penguins)
