Lesson 3.1 - Energy Pathways in an Ecosystem

 All organisms on Earth live in ecosystems.  They get the materials they need to live from their ecosystem, and they have a role in keeping the ecosystem healthy and sustainable.  You have learned that plants produce their own food and store the excess as carbohydrates.  Animals eat the plants and use the stored energy for their own life functions.  Scientists have related the energy transfers and conversions and use various ways to describe them. 

Read Energy Pathways in an Ecosystem on page 242. Then, answer the following questions.

 

Question 1. What is an ecosystem?

Question 2. What are the components of an ecosystem?  Give three examples of each.

Question 3. What can affect an ecosystem?

 

Check your answers with those that follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers to Questions:

Question 1. What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is a community of living things and the environment in which they live.

Question 2. What are the components of an ecosystem?  Give three examples of each.

The components of an ecosystem are

        1. living components such as plants, animals, bacteria
        2. non-living components such as rocks, weather, and water

Question 3. What can affect an ecosystem?

Any change in the components of an ecosystem will have an effect on the ecosystem.  If you bring in a new plant or animal into the ecosystem, it will affect the ecosystem.

 


Go to the next page to continue Lesson 3.

 

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