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Ecosystem Connections Worksheet

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Ecosystem Connections Worksheet

You are helping a conservation team investigate a New Zealand ngahere (forest). Read the evidence, solve the ecosystem puzzles, and explain how living and non-living parts are connected.

Read the ecosystem evidence

In a ngahere, plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food. Ferns and fruiting trees are plants. Kererū eat fruit and spread seeds. Wētā feed on plant material and dead leaves. A native lizard may eat insects such as wētā. Fungi and bacteria break down dead organisms and return nutrients to the soil. Temperature, rainfall, soil and light affect which organisms can survive. These organisms and conditions interact, so a change to one part can affect others.

1.Which statement best describes an ecosystem?

Only the animals living in one place
Living organisms interacting with each other and with non-living surroundings
A list of plants found in a region
Only the soil, water and weather in an area

2.Using the evidence, name two biotic (living) parts and two abiotic (non-living) parts of this ecosystem.

3.Match each organism to its most fitting role in this food web. A role may be used more than once.

Fern
Kererū eating fruit
Lizard eating a wētā
Fungi breaking down a fallen log

Secondary consumer
Producer
Primary consumer
Decomposer

Follow the connections

Arrows in a food chain point from the food to the organism that eats it. The same organism can have different feeding relationships in a larger food web.

4.Complete the food chain using the organisms in the evidence: fern → → . Label each organism producer, primary consumer or secondary consumer.

5.A dry summer reduces the growth of ferns and other plants. Predict one effect on a plant-eating animal and one possible effect on an animal that eats it. Explain the links.

6.Fungi and bacteria break down dead leaves and wood. What important ecosystem process would slow if decomposers became rare, and why would this matter to plants?

7.Which of these conditions is an abiotic factor that could affect the forest: a) amount of rainfall, b) number of kererū, c) soil temperature, d) fungi on a log? Name one correct option and explain briefly how it could affect an organism.

8.A walking track is widened and several large trees are removed. Give one likely change to the habitat and one way this could affect an organism living there.

9.The evidence says kererū eat fruit, and wētā feed on plant material and dead leaves. Which organism is stated to eat two different kinds of food, and what are they?

10.Imagine wētā numbers fall sharply. Based on the evidence, predict one possible effect on the lizard and explain why. Name one other organism in the evidence that could still provide food for a different consumer.

11.Conservation challenge: propose one practical action to protect a local forest ecosystem. State which part of the ecosystem it helps and how it could help.