Ecosystems

5.L.2 -- Understand the interdependence of plants and animals with their ecosystem. 

5.L.2.1 -- Compare the characteristics of several common ecosystems, including estuaries and salt marshes, oceans, lakes and ponds, forests, and grasslands. 

5.L.2.1 -- Students know that there are different types of ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic). These ecosystems can be divided into two types according to their characteristics:.

Terrestrial Land-based ecosystems include forests and grasslands. 

Forests have many trees (with needles or with leaves), shrubs, grasses and ferns, and a variety of animals. 

• • They usually get more rain than grasslands. 

  • Diverse types of animals can be found in forests, depending on their type.

    • Deciduous: black bear, deer, red fox, vole, rabbit, cardinal. 

    • Rain forest: panther, monkeys, capybara, snakes, spiders.

  • Temperatures in the forests may vary depending on where the forest is located. 

• Grasslands have fertile soil and are covered with tall grasses. 

  • They usually get a medium amount of rain, but less than forests.

  • Temperatures may also vary depending on where the grassland is located. 

  • Some examples of animals that live in the grasslands are prairie dogs, bison, and grasshoppers. 

Aquatic Water-based ecosystems may be fresh water (lakes and ponds) or saltwater (oceans, estuaries and saltwater marshes).

• Lakes and ponds are bodies of freshwater that are surrounded by land. 

  • Ponds are usually shallower than lakes and the temperature of the water usually stays the same from top to bottom. 

  • Plants and algae usually grow along the edges where the water is shallow. 

  • Some examples of animals may be different types of fish, amphibians, ducks, turtles, or beavers. 

• Oceans are large bodies of saltwater divided by continents. 

  • Oceans have many types of ecosystems depending on the conditions (sunlight, temperature, depth, salinity) of that part of the ocean.

  • Most organisms live where the ocean is shallow (from the shoreline to the continental shelf) because sunlight can reach deep and the water is warm making food abundant.

  • Some examples of organisms that live in the shallow ocean are drifters (jellyfish or seaweed), swimmers (fish), crawlers (crabs), and those anchored to the ocean floor (corals). Some organisms live in the open ocean, near the surface or down to the deep ocean bottom. 

  • Plankton float in the upper regions of the water. Some organisms swim to the surface to find food or for air (whales, turtles, sharks) while others live closer to the bottom (certain fish, octopus, tubeworms). 

  • Students know typical visual representations of the various ecosystems, as well as graphic representations of the food chains and webs, cycles and energy pyramids that are commonly associated with ecosystems. 

5.L.2.2 -- Classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve: producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors). 

5.L.2.3 -- Infer the effects that may result from the interconnected relationship of plants and animals to their ecosystem.