Understanding Ecosystems
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Understanding Ecosystems Chapter 4
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Understanding Ecosystems. Chapter 4. Lesson 1 Vocabulary. Environment — all of the living and nonliving things that affect an organism. Ecosystem — a community and its physical environment together. Population — all the individuals of the same kind living in the same environment. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Understanding Ecosystems
Understanding EcosystemsChapter 4
Lesson 1 VocabularyEnvironment— all of the living and nonliving
things that affect an organism.
Ecosystem— a community and its physical environment together.
Population— all the individuals of the same kind living in the same environment.
Community— all the populations of organisms living together in an environment.
The tarpon in this photograph are not yet full-grown! These fish don’t become adults until they are between 7 and 13 years old, when they can weigh more than 200 pounds. Tarpon live in salt water, but they can survive in a variety of ecosystems.
Lesson 1 (page 132) Where do you live? You might name your street and town. You also live
in an environment. An environment is all the living and nonliving things that surround you.
The living things in your environment are people, other animals, and plants. The nonliving things around you include water, air, soil, and weather.
The parts of an environment affect one another in many ways. For example, animals eat plants. The soil affects which plants can live in a place. Clean air and clean water help keep both plants and animals healthy.
All the living and nonliving things in an area form an ecosystem. An ecosystem can be very small. It might be the space under a rock.
Prairie dogs also live on the prairies and grasslands.
Lesson 1 (page 133) The small ecosystem found under a rock has nonliving parts,
too. They include pockets of air and the soil under the rock. You might find a few drops of water or maybe just damp soil. All ecosystems must have at least a little water.
The ecosystem under this rock has a climate. The climate in an area is the average weather over many years. Climate includes temperature and rainfall. The climate of an ecosystem depends on where the ecosystem is.
An ecosystem can also be as large as a forest. A forest can provide many kinds of food and shelter. This ecosystem may include hundreds of kinds of plants and animals.
Like all ecosystems, a forest has nonliving parts. They include water, air, soil, and climate.
