Ecosystems

Starter What is an ecosystem? Can you think of any examples?

Copy the following:

An ecosystem is a unit made up of two parts: - Living things (plants, animals, bacteria) - Their non-living surroundings or environment. air, water, soil and the climate An ecosystem is any size you choose to study. For example a pond, a field, a forest, a desert or the whole Earth! In an ecosystem, the living things interact with the environment and each other. Can you think of an example of how this might happen?

The food chain..

An ecosystem is like a canteen where living things eat and its all starts with plants.

Plants make their own food. They are called producers

Animals feed on plants or each other Dead things and waste are eaten by earthworms, insects, fungi and bacteria Decomposers (fungi and bacteria) feed on dead and waste meterial and recyle nutrients that the plants can use again Copy the above pattern and include pictures to represent each stage

Food webs
Often several consumer eat the same food. For example in a oak wood, both caterpillars and aphids ( a type of fly) feed on oak leaves So food chains link to form a food web. The complete food web for a wood (or any ecosystem) can be large and complex

Now stick in the sheet you have been given and answer the questions

1. What would suffer if: a) A disease killed all the crickets in the wood? b) All the trees got chopped down? 2. If all the foxes were wiped out: a) What might happen to the number of wood mice? b) What might happen because of a change in (a)?

The Earths main ecosystems

You can divide the Earth into eight huge ecosystems or biomes. Each has its own type of plants or vegetation Four of them are Hot desert Tropical rainforest Deciduous forest Savanna

What ecosystem do you think Ecuador would be included in?

Pick three different countries in the world that have different biomes. Write down the name of the country and the biomes it is part of.

Task
Look at the sheet you have been given. Answer questions 1.a), b) and c) Now answer question 2