Summary #2 : Living Things and their Environment

An ecosystem is all the living and nonliving things in an area interacting with each other. Ecology is the study of how all  these things interact in order to survive . Most ecosystems are much larger than a jar. Some, like the prairie ecosystem of North America , the deserts of Africa , and the  rain forests of Brasil , cover lage areas of a continent . The nonliving part of an ecosystem are the ecosystem's abiotic factors. All living things need certain nonliving things in order to survive .  All organism need water . Living things need minerals, such as calcium , iron , phosphorus , and nitrogen. Some living things , like plants and algae , need  sunlight to make food . Animals need oxygen to produce the energy for their bodies. Plants and algae need carbon dioxide. The enviroment must also have the right temperature for organisms to survive. The living parts are animals, plant, fungi, protists, and bacteria. Mushrooms and molds are fungi . Prostis include onecelled organisms. Microscopic bacteria live everywhere. These organisms-animals, plants, fungi, protists, and bacteria - make up the biotic factors, or living parts, of an ecosystem. Plants and algae are called produces. They poduce oxygen and food that animals need . Animals are consumers. Animals also give off carbon  dioxide that plants need to make food . Fungi and bacteria are decomposers. They decompose, o break down, dead plants and animals into useful things like minerals that  enrich soil. Plants need these in orde to grow.Also many kinds of wildflowers  painted the landscape with beatiful colors. These wildflowers included purple coneflowerrrs, bluebells, yellow sunflowers, and golden daleas, yellow sunflowers, and golden daleas. Near streams a traveler might come across oak, hickory, elm, or cedar trees. All the organisms of a species living in the same area make up a population .Most people are satisfied with identifying the population around them. Scientists want to Know how population interact. Scientists  investigate the activities of aminals, plants, fungi , protists , and bacteria in the ecosystem . A species niche includes many factors. It includes what a species eats and what eats that species.  It includes the kind of environment the species needs to live in.It even include whethe the species is active  by day or  night. Scientists study the habitats and niches of organisms in a community. They do this to see if the community is healthy or in trouble. The world is a place of changes. One day the weather may be dry and cold . The next day it may be wet and warm. Heavy rains may drench  the land one sping and summer . The next year's spring and summer may have cloudless skies day after day.