Ecosystems

Before Video

• An ecosystem is a community of interacting organisms and their environment. Living things interact with each other, and also with non-living things like soil, water and air.

• All the specific needs of a plant or animal must be met if it is going to survive in an ecosystem. These needs include food, shelter, temperature, water and air. Plants also need sunlight and the right soil conditions.

• In a healthy ecosystem many different kinds of plants and animals live and interact together. A healthy ecosystem is balanced.

• A new organism might throw off the balance of an ecosystem. This would cause changes such as some animals and plants in that ecosystem not being about to survive.

After Video

• Ecosystems range from the size of your backyard to an entire ocean.

• In the enclosed ecosphere, the algae uses sunlight to grow. The algae is then eaten by the shrimp. The shrimp’s poop provides food for bacteria which convert the poop to nutrients that help the algae to grow. It’s a cycle!

• The shrimp in the ecosphere depend on the algae for food. If there was no sunlight, the algae would die, which leaves no food for the shrimp.

• Rainforest ecosystems contain lots of plants. Plants provide food and homes for animals like birds and butterflies. Birds build nests in plants. Bugs eat leaves of plants and birds drink nectar from flowers. Some plants also make fruit which animals eat.

• Rainforests cover only about 6 percent of the planet but are responsible for producing about 40% of the oxygen we breathe!

• There are many examples. Some of the examples in the video include fish, crabs, shrimp, turtles, algae, plants, dead wood and rocks. All these are part of a freshwater ecosystem.

• Humans can positively impact a saltwater ecosystem by being careful not to over fish. Humans can negatively impact a saltwater ecosystem by allowing fertilizer from farms to flow into the ocean, which can lead to blooms of algae. Too much algae can kill fish.

• In the winter, many animals migrate (move somewhere else) or hibernate (sleep for a long time) to avoid the cold of winter. Also, some trees lose leaves to conserve resources in the winter. In the spring, plants bloom around the same time that insects emerge to help pollinate the plants.

• Flowers in a garden provide nectar for birds, bees and other insects. Birds and insects transfer pollen between plants, helping the plants reproduce and survive. Trees provide shelter and nesting areas for animals like squirrels. Even small puddles in gardens are ecosystems! They contain algae, worms and insects.

A community of interacting organisms and their environment. Living things interact with each other, and also with non-living things like soil, water and air.

A scientist that studies plants.

A sweet, sugary liquid made inside flowers. Insects and hummingbirds feed on. Bees use it to make honey.

An area densely packed with lots of different kinds of plants, tall trees and animals. Rainforests get a lot of rain (about 100 inches of rain per year). All that rain allows lots of different plants to grow and lots of animals live near those plants. Rainforests also produce a lot of oxygen that humans breathe and scientists estimate that there are millions of different kinds of living things still undiscovered in rainforests.

Living things not naturally found in that ecosystem. They usually cause damage or throw off the balance of the natural ecosystem.

Anything living such as an animal, plant, insect, bacteria, etc.

Anything that doesn’t grow and reproduce such as rocks, soil, air or water.

A living thing similar to a plant that is usually found growing in water. They produce their own food through photosynthesis like plants do, but algae have no leaves, stems or roots.

A closed container of plants and other living things that shows you how an ecosystem works.

Tiny living things that are everywhere around us. We can only see them with a very powerful microscope. They come in different shapes such as rods, spirals, and spheres. Bacteria are important in an ecosystem to break down dead and decaying matter.