The document discusses key concepts about ecosystems, including that organisms within ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among themselves and with their environment. Energy enters as sunlight and is transferred through producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and decomposers. Organisms also cycle carbon, nitrogen, and water back into the environment. The types and numbers of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on available resources and abiotic factors like sunlight, water, and soil composition.

1. The Important
Thing About
Ecosystems
Big Book
5th Grade GLAD Unit

2. The important thing about ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy and nutrients among
themselves and with the environment.
• Energy enters ecosystems as
sunlight.
• Photosynthesis is the process of
transforming solar energy into
chemical energy.
• Green plants and photosynthetic
microorganisms, also called
producers, are the foundation of
energy flow in most ecosystems
because they are capable of
producing their own food by
photosynthesis.
• A food web depicts how energy is
passed from organism to organism.

3. But, the important thing about
ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy
and nutrients among themselves
and with the environment.

4. The important thing about ecosystems is that the
organisms within them exchange energy and nutrients
among themselves and with the environment.
• Energy and matter transfer from one
organism to another organism through
consumption.
• Plants are eaten by primary consumers
(herbivores); herbivores are eaten by
secondary consumers (carnivores); all
are eaten by scavengers and
decomposers when dead.
• Energy is transferred from organisms
to the physical environment through
heat loss.
• Carbon, nitrogen, and water are also
cycled and returned to the physical
environment.

5. But, the important thing about
ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy
and nutrients among themselves
and with the environment.

6. The important thing about ecosystems is that the
organisms within them exchange energy and nutrients
among themselves and with the environment.
• Organisms in a population may be
categorized by whether they are
producers of chemical energy from
solar energy or consumers of
chemical energy.
• Consumers can be categorized as
herbivores, predators, scavengers,
or decomposers.
• Consumers may also be categorized
in multiple ways, such as omnivores
that eat both plants and animals and
opportunistic consumers that act as
both predators and scavengers.

7. But, the important thing about
ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy
and nutrients among themselves
and with the environment.

8. The important thing about ecosystems is that the
organisms within them exchange energy and nutrients
among themselves and with the environment.
• Different kinds of organisms may play similar
ecological roles in similar biomes.
• Ecological roles are defined by the environment
and not by any particular organism.
• For example: Australia has plants that are unique
to that continent yet play the same role as other
kinds of plants in similar environments
elsewhere.
• Another example is in the rain forests of South
America, the mammalian consumers and
predators are placental (nonmarsupial) sloths,
deer, monkeys, rodents, and cats, and in the rain
forests of Australia, marsupial kangaroos,
wallabies, bandicoots, play the same ecological
role.

9. But, the important thing about
ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy
and nutrients among themselves
and with the environment.

10. The important thing about ecosystems is that the
organisms within them exchange energy and nutrients
among themselves and with the environment.
• The number and types of organisms an ecosystem can
support depends on the resources available and on
abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, a
range of temperatures, and soil composition.
• The richer the plant growth, the more diversity of life
types and number of organisms can be supported in an
ecosystem.
• The richness of plant growth depends on abiotic
factors, such as water, sunlight, moderate temperatures,
temperature ranges, and composition of soils.
• The number of plant-eating animals in an ecosystem
depends directly on the available edible plants.
• The number of predators in an ecosystem depends
on the amount of prey available.

11. But, the important thing about
ecosystems is that the organisms
within them exchange energy
and nutrients among themselves
and with the environment.

12. Credits• Cover Photo: http://innovationmanagement.se/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/innovation-ecosystem.jpg
• Energy: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/74403000/jpg/_74403107_177855738.jpg
• Photosynthesis: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Photosynthesis.gif
• Food Web: http://ed101.bu.edu/StudentDoc/Archives/ED101fa09/tje50/Images%20WS/foodweb-1.gif
• Herbivores & Carnivores: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/8b/d0/
a3/8bd0a351a5acc71de04004301696b152.jpg
• Carbon, Water, Nitrogen: http://mbm.net.au/b100/carbon/fig1.jpg
• Food Chain: https://producersconsumers.wikispaces.com/file/view/salric.jpg2.jpg/37084859/salric.jpg2.jpg
• Cycle: http://anadavidson.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/7/3/14734220/8113939_orig.jpg?512
• Ecology: Energy Flows Through Ecosystems Level 4 CA K. Woodward/A. Rosendin - Project G.L.A.D (01/07 JB)