1. Organisms and Where They Live

2. An ecosystem consists of living and nonliving things.
The living things make up a community.
Communities are divided into populations.
A habitat is where an organism lives.
The nonliving things that affect an ecosystem are:
light
soil or water,
amount of rain,
altitude, and
temperature

3. Things may harm an environment.
Too many animals depleting resources for survival, and humans building homes on forest or desert land.
There are ways that the ecosystem can be protected and improved.
Birds can eat insects that would harm the environment.
Humans can set up wildlife preserves.
Plants can prevent soil erosion.

4. There are different kinds of ecosystems.
Climate is a major factor that produces different kinds of ecosystems.
The ecosystems closer to the equator are warmer than those further away from the equator.
The land ecosystems are:
taiga
grasslands
mild forest lands
desert
tropical rain forest
tundra.
The water ecosystems are:
saltwater shores
freshwater rivers
freshwater lakes and ponds
open sea-surface
open sea-deeper down

5. A food chain is the steps in which organisms get the food to survive.
Producers, consumers, and decomposers are the three types of organisms that play a role in the community.
They are also involved in the food chain.
Producers make food.
Producers are green and have chloroplasts.
Consumers use the food that producers make or eat other organisms.
Consumers can be herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.
Decomposers break down wastes and other remains of organisms.
Decomposers are bacteria, fungi, worms and snails.
A food web consists of overlapping food chains.
This is when organisms from different food chains share the same food source.