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Exploring Ecosystems Together

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Exploring Ecosystems Together

Read the field notes and use the food web to solve the challenges. Biotic means living or once-living; abiotic means non-living. Give evidence from the information provided.

Kōwhai Wetland field notes

A small wetland beside a stream is being monitored by ecologists. Raupō and native grasses grow in shallow water. Sunlight helps the plants grow, while rain replenishes the wetland. Insects feed on plants and algae. Small fish eat aquatic insects, and eels may eat small fish. A heron hunts fish in the shallows. Fungi and bacteria break down dead leaves and animals, returning nutrients to the soil and water. After several dry weeks, water levels fall and fewer insects are seen.

Sunlight → raupō and algae

Raupō and algae → insects

Aquatic insects → small fish

Small fish → eel and heron

Dead plants and animals → fungi and bacteria → nutrients in soil and water

Investigate the ecosystem

1.Which statement best describes an ecosystem?

A group of animals living in one place
Living things interacting with one another and with non-living surroundings
The weather in a region
All the plants in a habitat

2.Sort these four wetland features into biotic and abiotic categories: eel, rain, bacteria, water.

3.Match each term to its meaning: producer; consumer; decomposer. Meanings: makes its own food, usually using sunlight; eats other organisms; breaks down dead material.

Producer
Consumer
Decomposer

Breaks down dead material
Makes its own food, usually using sunlight
Eats other organisms

4.In the food web, what does the arrow from small fish to heron mean?

5.Build a four-organism food chain from the wetland food web, starting with a producer and ending with a heron.

6.The wetland has several dry weeks and water levels fall. Predict one likely effect on insects and explain how it could then affect another organism in the food web.

7.True or false: Fungi and bacteria are abiotic because they are too small to see easily.

TrueFalse

8.Why are decomposers important in this wetland? Use the field notes to explain what happens to nutrients.

9.Imagine a change removes many aquatic insects from the wetland. Name one organism likely to have less food and explain why.

10.Plan one practical action people could take to help protect a wetland ecosystem. Explain how it would help at least one living thing or abiotic feature.