The Living World- Ecosystems

Question 1

Producers

Answer 1

Producers use light energy from the Sun to make their own food.

Question 2

Consumers

Answer 2

Consumers can’t make their own food. Instead, they get their energy by consuming other organisms (producers or other consumers).

Question 3

Decomposers

Answer 3

Decomposers (e.g. bacteria, fungi) recycle organic matter within an ecosystem. 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.

Question 4

Ecosystems

Answer 4

Ecosystems are made up of all the living and non-living parts in a specific area.

Question 5

What does Food webs show?

Answer 5

Food chains and food webs show the feeding relationships within communities of organisms.

Question 6

What does Food chain show?

Answer 6

Food chains show what eats what within a biological community.

Question 7

Food chains display ?

Answer 7

the feeding relationships within a community

Question 8

Changes Within Ecosystems

Answer 8

Different parts of an ecosystem can be linked together.
E.g. all primary consumers depend on producers for food, and some also use producers as a habitat.
And so, if one part of an ecosystem changes, this is likely to have an effect on other parts.
The diagram above shows an example of an ecosystem cascade.

Question 9

Tundra

Answer 9

Environments like the Arctic, Alaska, Finland and places close to the North Pole are tundra biomes. In other words, places with high latitudes.
They get very long days in summer and very short days in winter (only a few hours of sunlight).
Winter temperatures are usually below freezing, it doesn’t rain much and the dominant types of vegetation are grasses and moss.
Just beneath the soil, there is a permafrost layer (ground that is always frozen).

Question 10

Grassland

Answer 10

The grassland biome is usually found between +23.5° and -23.5%deg; latitude. - These are what we call ‘savannah grassland’.
In grasslands, there is a wet and a dry season and as you would expect, the dominant vegetation is grass.
There are few trees in grassland.
The American Midwest, the Argentinian pampas and South Africa are examples of the grassland biome.

Question 11

Temperate deciduous forest

Answer 11

Temperate deciduous forests are found in Europe, the USA, and China.
They are usually in the 40° to 60° latitude areas.
Temperate deciduous forests can be identified by their four seasons, with the trees in the deciduous forests shedding their leaves in winter.
Rain falls throughout the year.

Question 12

Hot desert

Answer 12

The hot desert biome is 15o - 35o north and south of the equator.
There is almost no rainfall, temperatures are very high in the day and freezing at night.
The Sahara desert is an example of this.
Cactuses and other plants with evolutionary adaptations to deal with the lack of water are the only plants that survive.

Question 13

Polar

Answer 13

Unsurprisingly, the polar biome is found near the poles (North and South).
Temperatures are usually freezing all year round. It is cold, icy, with permafrost, not much rainfall and not much sunlight.

Question 14

The 6 major categories of eco-system are:

Answer 14

Polar
Hot desert
Temperate deciduous forest
Grassland
Tundra
Tropical rainforest

Question 15

Tropical rainforest

Answer 15

Tropical rainforests are found in areas like the Amazon jungle or the Daintree Rainforest in Australia.
They are usually located between the tropics, where it is always hot and the humidity/moisture is high.
These are areas of lush forest with dense canopies of vegetation forming clear layers.