Unit 1B - ecosystems

Question 1

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 1

a unit that includes all the biotic(living) parts and the abiotic(non-living) parts in an area

Question 2

What are the three things organisms can be classed as?

Answer 2

• producers
• consumers
• decomposers

Question 3

What is a consumer?

Answer 3

an organism that gets it’s energy by eating other organisms - it’s producers or other consumers

Question 4

What is a producer?

Answer 4

an organism that uses sunlight energy to produce food

Question 5

What does the food chain show?

Answer 5

what eats what

Question 6

What is a decomposer?

Answer 6

an organism that gets its energy by breaking down dead material

Question 7

What happens when dead material is decomposed?

Answer 7

nutrients are released into the soil, taken up from the soil by plants.

Question 8

In some parts of an ecosystem, what do the depend on?

Answer 8

sources of food, habitat. So if one part changes so does the rest

Question 9

The climate in an area determines what type of…?

Answer 9

ecosystems form

Question 10

What are the two types of grasslands?

Answer 10

savannah and temperate

Question 11

What are the contents of the savannah?

Answer 11

found between the tropic, distinct wet & and dry seasons, although rainfall is still relatively low

Question 12

What is the vegetation like in the savannah?

Answer 12

grasses with a few scattered trees

Question 13

Where are temperate grasslands found at?

Answer 13

higher latitudes where this is more variation in temp and less rainfall - no trees just grasses

Question 14

What are the contents of a tundra?

Answer 14

found at high latitudes in northern Europe, Alaska, and northern Canada. Winters are very cold, summers are brief and their is little rainfall, hardly any trees - vegetation includes; mosses, grass and low shrubs.

Question 15

What is a permafrost?

Answer 15

a permeant layer of frozen ground

Question 16

What are the contents of a temperate deciduous forest?

Answer 16

found mainly in mid latitudes where their are four distinct seasons, summers are warm, winters are relatively mild and theirs little rainfall all year round

Question 17

What happens in deciduous forests?

Answer 17

trees lose their leaves in winter to cope with cold weather

Question 18

What are the contents of tropical forests?

Answer 18

found at the equator, between tropics, where its hot and wet all year round

Question 19

What is vegetation like in tropical rainforests?

Answer 19

area of lush forest, dense canopies of vegetation forming distinct layers

Question 20

What are the contents of the polar?

Answer 20

found at north and south poles, very cold, icy and dry, remains dark for several months each year so the growing season is short

Question 21

What is vegetation like in the polar?

Answer 21

not much grows at all

Question 22

What are the contents of hot desserts?

Answer 22

found between 15 and 35 degrees north and south of the equator where theirs little rainfall

Question 23

What is the weather like in hot desserts?

Answer 23

very hot during the day and very cold at night

Question 24

What is vegetation like in hot desserts?

Answer 24

shrubs and cacti are sparsely distributed in the sandy soil