An ecosystem is a natural system made up of plants, animals and the environment.
Ecosystems can be identified at different scales:
- Local scale:
- small scale such as a pond
- small scale such as a pond
- A global scale:
- large scale such as tropical rainforest
- they can also be called biomes
- large scale such as tropical rainforest
Key words:
Term |
Definition |
Producers |
They convert energy form the environment (sunlight) into sugars (glucose). The most obvious producers are plants that convert energy by photosynthesis. |
Consumers |
Consumers get energy from the sugars producers by the producers. For example, a pond snail eats plants. |
Decomposers |
They break down plant and animal material and return the nutrients to the soil. Such as bacteria and fungi. |
Food Chain |
They show direct links between producers and consumers in the form of a simple line. |
Food Web |
They show all the connections between producers and consumers in a rather more complex way. |
Nutrient Cycling |
These are foods that are used by plants or animals to grow. There are two main sources of nutrients:
|
The nutrient cycle
|
An example of a food chain
|
An example of a food web
|
Changes to ecosystems:
There are two types of changes that can occur to ecosystems;
- Natural changes
- Extreme weather events like droughts can be devastating to local ecosystems like a pond
- Extreme weather events like droughts can be devastating to local ecosystems like a pond
- Changes to do with human activities
- Long term changes like climate change have the possibility to impact global ecosystems like deserts and tropical ecosystems
- Hunting can change the proportion of animals in a food web, which can have knock on consequences
- The use of pesticides can also change the amount of producers in local ecosystems like pond
- Long term changes like climate change have the possibility to impact global ecosystems like deserts and tropical ecosystems