Unit 5 Organisms & Environments (Patterns, Cycles, Systems, and Relationships)

Organisms, Adaptations, & Food Chains Study Guide

Test will be on Tuesday, March 5th.

Key Concepts
● Environments have specific physical characteristics that provide food, water, air,
and protection to populations and communities of plants and animals in an
ecosystem.
● Changes to an environment can affect whether certain organisms can survive in
that ecosystem.
● Environmental changes such as floods, droughts, or fires will cause some
organisms to perish or move while permitting other organisms to thrive.
● Energy that moves through a food chain originally comes from the Sun.
● Plants get their energy from the Sun, and animals get their energy from plants
and other organisms.
● Removal of an organism from a food chain can affect other organisms.

Please use this study guide to help your child prepare for the Common Assessment. If
you or your child has any questions regarding the terms on the review sheet, please
email your child’s teacher so we can help.

Environments
Environments have specific physical characteristics that provide food, water, air, or
protection to populations and communities in an ecosystem. Every environment (an
organism’s surroundings) is a result of a delicate balance of living elements (organisms)
and nonliving elements (objects, landforms, weather, and climate). An ecosystem is a
community of living and nonliving things in their natural environment. In order for any
population (living things that belong to the same group in the same area) or a
community (group of different populations sharing an environment) to survive (stay
alive), the living and nonliving elements must provide basic needs: food, water, air, and
protection. Any adjustment to any of these factors can result in a dramatic change in
an environment’s appearance or composition. Many influences on an environment
can come from nature itself. Plants and animals must respond to changes in the
ecosystem, or they can perish (die)
Community - All the interacting populations in a particular area.

Drought - A period of time when water is scarce in an area because of lack of

precipitation.

Ecosystem - All living and nonliving things and all their interactions in an area.

Flood - Too much water in an area.

Perish - To die.

Population - All the interacting members of a species in a single area.

Thrive - To grow well or strong.

Food Chains

Energy - What is needed to do work or cause change

Food Chain - The path of food energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem

Organism - A single, self-contained, living thing

Producer - An organism that uses sunlight to make its own food for energy

Consumer - An organism that gets energy from eating plants or animals

Herbivore - An animal that only eats plants

Carnivore - An animal that only eats meat

Omnivore - An animal that eats both plants and animals

What would happen to this food chain if the mice were eliminated?

______________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

In the food chain above, where does the eagle get its energy from?

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Where does all energy in any food chain originate from?

______________________________________________________________________________________________