Ecosystems

The concepts developed in this standard include the following:

• Organisms have structural adaptations or physical attributes that help them meet a life need.
• Organisms also have behavioral adaptations, or certain types of activities they perform, which help them meet a life need.
• The organization of communities is based on the utilization of the energy from the sun within a given ecosystem. The greatest amount of energy in a community is in the producers.
• Within a community, organisms are dependent on the survival of other organisms. Energy is passed from one organism to another.
• The organization of a community is defined by the interrelated niches within it.
• The sun’s energy cycles through ecosystems from producers through consumers and back into the nutrient pool through decomposers.
• An organism’s habitat provides food, water, shelter, and space. The size of the habitat depends on the organism’s needs.
• A niche is the function that an organism performs in the food web of that community. A niche also includes everything else the organism does and needs in its environment. No two types of organisms occupy the exact same niche in a community.
• During its life cycle, an organism’s role in the community, its niche, may change. For example, what an animal eats, what eats it, and other relationships will change.
• Humans can have a major impact on ecosystems.
• Habitat is the place or kind of place in which an animal or plant naturally lives.