Ecosystems Connect Whats an Ecosystem Slide Show Check

Ecosystems Connect: What’s an Ecosystem? Slide Show

Check out these photos. These are all types of ecosystems! Coral reef Grassland Pine forest/grassland savanna Coastal mangrove Have you ever seen any of these ecosystems in person? Deciduous forest

Ecosystems are made of parts. Some parts are living. Scientists call these living parts of ecosystems biotic. (The “bio” in this word means “life. ” Can you think of other “bio” words? )

Other ecosystem parts are not living. Scientists call these parts of ecosystems abiotic. These slides show a few abiotic things: (such as rain, temperature, sunlight, clouds, wind, snow)

In an ecosystem, biotic things interact with each other, and also interact with abiotic things. Here are some examples of interactions that connect the parts of an ecosystem: Match the following statements with the photos above: 1. Pollination allows seed production; 2. water is critical to plants and animals; 3. some organisms live on top of others; 4. fires affect many ecosystems; 5. many animals eat each other.

An ecosystem has many abiotic and biotic interactions happening all of the time! These interactions affect how the ecosystem works and how it changes.

People are a part of ecosystems too. Sometimes, people don’t change ecosystems very much when they live in them: Man and son making a canoe out of a single rainforest tree Many Native Americans lived in harmony with ecosystems

And sometimes, people change ecosystems a lot when they move in: What ecosystem changes do you see here?

Sometimes, people create their very own types of “ecosystems. ” These “ecosystems” are different from many natural environments in some ways. (This is Biosphere 2, the first human attempt at making a complex ecosystem that is completely indoors. It is in Arizona. ) What kind of an ecosystem would you create?

Photo Credits: Barry Rosenbaum: USFWS: NASA: NOAA: NPS: Everglades National Park: NIH: USDA: BLM: DOE: