User:Dovergovschool/sandbox

Ecosystems

An ecosystem includes all of the living things in a given area, interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments. An ecosystem consists of two component parts. 1.	Living component which consist of animals, plants, microbes 2.	Non-living component which refers to the air, water, rocks, minerals, soil, weather etcetera. There is no limit to how large or small an ecosystem can be. It can be small as a puddle or large as an ocean. Very large ecosystems are called biomass. Organisms in an ecosystem interact with each other. Ecology relate to the study of ecosystems. Scientists who study the different components of ecosystems and how they are related to each other are called Ecologists. Ecologists have determined that the population of many species, if left undistributed by humans, will be left unchanged.

Feeding Relationship The plants and animals in an ecosystem do not need feeding from outside. A pond is an ecosystem which is full of plants and animal life. The living things are kept alive by the sunlight, water air and minerals in their surroundings. The plants absorb sunlight and carbon dioxide in their leaves. The animals eat the plants or other animals. They breathe oxygen that the plants give out from their leaves. When something dies its body decays and the materials are recycled through the system. In some feeding relationships both organisms benefit. This is called symbolism. There are some relationships where only one organism benefit. This is called commensalism parasitism; the animal that is fed on is called the host while the organism that feeds is called the parasite. The parasite has a negative effect on the host and can make it sick.

Organism in a Food Web 	Herbivores- Are animals that it mainly plants; examples are goats, sheep, rabbits etcetera. 	Carnivores- Are animals that eat other animals’ example lions, alligators, dolphins etcetera. 	Predators- Are animals that eat plants and animals’ example humans, bears etcetera. 	Prey- Organism that predators dead animals. 	Scavengers- are animals that eat dead animals Some ways in which the relationship in an ecosystem can change The number of living organisms in an ecosystem can change because of: 	Birth 	Death 	Migration into and out of the ecosystem

The resources are things necessary for species survival and successful reproduction.