1. A Unit Overview Mr. E. Larson
Wetland Ecosystems
A Unit Overview
Mr. E. Larson

2. Essential Questions
Can you describe the living and non-living components of a wetland ecosystem?
Can you identify the interactions among the components of an ecosystem?
Can you recognize and describe a variety of wetland ecosystems?
Can you identify some plants and animals found in a wetland?
Can you recognize and describe lifecycles of some plants and animals?
Can you identify and describe adaptations made by plants and animals for life in the wetlands?

3. Essential Questions
Do you understand that all plants and animals have an important role in the wetlands?
Can you identify the roles of different organisms in the food web? Producers, Consumers and Decomposers?
Can you draw a food chain and food web diagram?
Can you identify how different organisms breathe?
Can you identify the impact humans have on the wetland?
Can you identify ways humans can preserve and enhance the wetlands?
Do you understand how the environment effects the wetlands?

4. What is a wetland?
Wetlands are areas that are too wet to be considered land but not wet enough to be considered lakes. They have poor drainage for the soil and no clear banks or beds like lakes. Wetlands can be permanent (there all year like ponds) or temporary (there once in a while like puddles)

5. A more scientific definition
A wetland is an area of land which is saturated with water long enough to have poorly drained soil. There needs to be significant interaction of living and non-living things, which contribute to the conditions of the water, land, and soil. The depth of the water does not exceed 6 meters. They do not have well defined beds and banks.
There are five main types of wetlands found in Alberta; bog, fen, swamp, marsh (slough), and pond.

6. Bog A bog is the most common type of wetland found in Northern Canada.
They are acidic. They are primarily made up of water but have a lot vegetation.

7. Fen They are similar to bogs, but they are not acidic.
They are fed by rain water and are primarily made up of mosses.

8. Swamp
In a swamp, the water is standing or gently flowing between trees and wooded areas.
They are also known as wetlands forests or wooded wetlands.
They may form along the shores of rivers or lakes.

9. Marsh (slough)
These are wetlands that have standing or slow-moving water.
Soft stemmed plants surround them. Plants have their roots in the water and their stems and leaves out of the water.
They are found in grassy meadows with shrubs or trees nearby.

10. Pond A body of water that is smaller than a lake.
A pond is smaller, shallower and has more vegetation in and around it.
They can be natural or man-made.

11. How is a lake different from a wetland?
A pond is usually an older lake. Lakes gradually get older over time.
As they get older, they have more vegetation growing in and around them.
They also become shallower, as the water begins to evaporate over time.

12. Ecosystems
An ecosystem is made up of all of the living and non-living things in an area.
Living things are all plants and animals in an area.
Non-living things include air, soil, water, sunlight, rocks, chemicals in soil, dead matter and wind, etc.

13. Wetland Ecosystems
All living and non-living things in an ecosystem interacts. A wetland ecosystem is all biotic and abiotic components that are found in and around a wetland
Abiotic means non-living things, Biotic means living things.

14. Classification
All living things can be classified into two categories. Plants and animals.
Plants are called producers
Animals are classified into either mollusks, crustaceans, insects, arachnids, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

15. Plants
A plant is an organism that takes energy from the sun and converts it into food. Plants are producers, which means they produce their own food.
Plants include all vegetation, basically anything that is green. Plants include all plant life and trees.

16. Types of Trees Trees are classified into two categories.
Coniferous- which are trees that keep their leaves all year round.
Deciduous- which are trees that loose their leaves in the fall.

17. Coniferous Trees

18. Deciduous Trees

19. Animals All animals can be divided into these categories:
Mullusc Amphibian
Crustacean Reptile
Arachnid Birds
Fish
Mammal

20. Mollusks (Molluscs)
A mollusk is an animal that does not have a backbone. It has a soft body without segments and usually has a hard shell covering its body.
Examples are squid, octopus, clams, snails

21. Crustaceans
A crustacean is an animal that does not have a backbone. It has jointed legs, a hard shell (an external skeleton) and two sets of antennae.
They include lobsters, crabs, shrimp

22. Insects
An insect is an animal that does not have a backbone. Its body is divided into three parts. A head, thorax, and abdomen. It has six legs and usually two or four wings. It has one set of antennae.

23. Arachnids
An arachnid is an animal that does not have a backbone. It has eight walking legs, no antennae or wins. Usually its body is divided into two parts.
Spiders are arachnids.

24. Fish
A fish is a cold- blooded animal that has a backbone. It uses gills to breath oxygen in water. They have fins and usually scales.

25. Amphibians
An amphibian is a cold-blooded animal with a backbone. It begins its life living in water, breathing with gills. Later in life, it grows lungs and can live on land.
Examples are Frogs, toads, salamanders

26. Reptiles
A reptile is a cold-blooded animal that has a backbone. Its body is covered in scales. It has lungs and breathes air.
Examples are lizards, snakes, turtles, alligators and crocodiles

27. Birds
A bird is a warm-blooded animal with a backbone. It lays eggs and has feathers covering the body. It has wings and is able to fly.

28. Mammals
A mammal is a warm-blooded animal with a backbone. Females have a gland to produce milk to feed their young. They are mostly covered in hair. There are many types of mammals, from beavers, rats, wolves and foxes.

29. More Classification
All living organisms can be classified into three main categories:
Producers
Consumers
Decomposers

30. Producers Producers are organisms that produce their own food.
Most producers are plants

31. Photosynthesis
This the process in which plants produce their own food. They take in the sun’s light, use water and carbon dioxide to produce food energy (a sugar carbohydrate) and oxygen.
Plants produce oxygen for us to breathe.
They use chlorophyll to produce food, it is the green part of the plant.

32. Consumers
Consumers are organisms that have to eat other organisms to get energy. They cannot produce their own food.
Consumers are grouped into three categories. Herbivores, Omnivores and Carnivore.

33. Herbivores
These are consumers who only eat plants.

34. Carnivores
Carnivores are consumers that only eat other consumers. They only eat meat.

35. Omnivores
Omnivores are consumers that eat plants, but they also eat other consumers.

36. Food Pyramid

37. Decomposers
Decomposers are organisms that break down dead material into nutrients.
Decomposers are organisms like worms, fungi, moss, lichen, maggots.

38. Parts of a Pond
Emergent Zone- all plants that grow outside of the water.
Submerging Zone- all plants that grow under the water

39. Life Cycles
A life cycle is the stages in an organisms life.Most organism start as an egg- move to young, then to an adult.
Other organism go through metamorphosis- which is a change from young to adult, where the body changes form. Example a butterfly.

40. Life cycle of a Butterfly

41. Life Cycle of a Frog

42. Life Cycle of a Dragonfly

43. Plant Life Cycles Most plants go from seed, to plant.
The plant is physically the same, but at it grows older, it grows larger.
Basically, a young plant is a smaller version of a adult plant

44. Adaptations
Many organisms have special adaptations so that they can survive in the wetlands.
An adaptations is a change in an organisms body that helps them survive in and around the wetlands.

45. Types of Adaptations
Locomotion- the act or power of moving from one place to another.
Structural Support- act or power of holding it up.
Stomata- small opening on leaves that give off gases.
Nocturnal- animals that are active at night
Pincer- a claw
Predator- animal that eats other animals
Parasite- an organism that lives in or on other organisms.

46. Identify the adaptation

47. Animal Adaptations
Beaver- tail to help build dam, swim. Teeth to chew down trees. Oily fur that is waterproof.
Trout- Fins for swimming, gills for breathing
Mosquito- mouth that is like a needle to pierce skin and suck up blood
Crow- hollow bones for flying. Pointy beak to find food.

48. Plant Adaptations
Plants have adaptations too. They grow taller to reach sunlight.
Some have larger leaves in darker areas or wetter environments for photosynthesis.
Some plants grow long, shallow roots

49. Food Web All organism need to get energy to survive.
Plants (producers) get energy from the sun and from water.
Consumers get energy from what they eat.
Decomposers get energy from the what has died.

50. Food Web

51. Food Web

52. Food Chain All organisms are connected in a food chain or web.
An animal relies on another organism to survive

53. Food Chains

54. Examples of a food Chains
mosquito  frog  Snake
Leech  Red Winged Blackbird  Fox

55. Conservation
Why is it important to conserve the wetlands? They are a very important part the Earth’s ecosystem
What does conservation mean? Conservation means to preserve or save.

56. Benefits of the Wetlands
The Wetlands filter pollution from the land and soil
The wetlands provide oxygen for a wide variety of organisms.
The wetlands provide for many, many organisms.