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Ecosystems
5th Grade Science
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Biome | Areas of the world that are classified by their climate, geographic features, and the plants and animals who live there. |
Ecosystem | A group of living organisms and nonliving things sharing an environment. |
Community | All the populations of different species living in an area. |
Population | All of the organisms in a species living in the same area. |
Habitat | Where the population of organisms lives. |
Niche | The role of an organism in the community. |
Terrestrial Ecosystems | Land based ecosystems that include forests and grasslands. |
Deciduous Forests | A forest with many trees, shrubs, grasses and ferns with a variety of animals including: black bear, deer, red fox, rabbits, and cardinals. Weldon is a deciduous forest ecosystem! |
Grassland | Areas with fertile soil covered with tall grasses that get less rain than forests, also called prairies. Animals that live in the America Grassland are prairie dogs, bison, and grasshoppers. |
Tropical Rain forest | A forest in the tropics near the equator that has very warm, humid weather and a large variety of plants and animals. Animals include: panthers, monkeys, capybaras, snakes, and a variety of insects. |
Food Chain | depicts the feeding sequence in a ecosystem, explaining what eats what (or who!) |
Food Web | Shows the feeding sequence in an ecosystem, made of many food chains |
Predator | An animal that eats other animals. |
Prey | An animal that is food for other animals. |
Abiotic | The nonliving factors that affect living organisms. |
Biotic | The living parts of an ecosystem. Plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are all living factors. |
Producers | Plants in an ecosystem that make their own food through photosynthesis. |
Consumers | Animals in an ecosystem because they cannot make their own food, so they need to consume (eat) plants and/or animals. |
Decomposers | Bacteria and fungi that eat dead plants and animals and in the process they break them down and put the matter back into the soil. |
Interdependence | When one organism is dependent on another organism or nonliving thing for survival. |
Biodiversity | The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem |
Marine Ecosystem | Salt water ecosystems including oceans, estuaries, coral reefs, and salt water mashes. |
Freshwater Ecosystem | Low salt content ecosystems that include lakes, ponds, springs, rivers, and wetlands. |
Energy Pyramid | A graphic organizer that shoes that less and less food and energy is available as you move from producers (the base) to the top predator (the top). |
Herbivore | Primary consumers that only eat producers. |
Carnivore | Secondary consumers that only eat meat/protein. |
Omnivore | Tertiary consumers that eat producers and meat/protein. |
Scavenger | Carnivores that eat prey that is already dead. |
Endangered Species | a species having no living members |
Wildlife Conservation | to protect and save the organisms in our natural environment |
Invasive Species | plants or animals that are not native to an area and spread quickly and damage other plants and animals |
Pollution | The introduction of chemicals into the natural environment that cause serious negative changes |