Investigation 3 “Aquatic Environments” Vocabulary
Homework for Week of October 1-5, 2012
1. Aquarium: a tank for keeping live water plants and animals.
2. Aquatic Environment: water is the most important nonliving factor in an aquatic
environment. An aquatic environment is different from a terrestrial environment
because it is a water environment, not a land environment.
3. Algae: microscopic organisms. The green color in the aquarium water is from many,
many green algae. Snails and scuds eat algae for food.
4. Freshwater environment: a pond, lake, stream, pool, or aquarium. The water is not
salty like the ocean.
5. Elodea: a common aquatic plant.
6. Lemma (duckweed): an aquatic plant. It floats on the surface of the water.
7. Ecosystem: the interactions of the living and nonliving components of an
environment.
Homework for Week of October 8-12, 2012
8. Producer: an organism that makes its own food. Plants and algae are producers.
9. Consumer: an animal that eats other organisms.
10. Decomposer: an organism that eats dead plants and animals. The most important
decomposers are bacteria and fungi. Earthworms can be decomposers.
11. Food Chain: describes the path that food takes from one organism to another.
12. Food Web: more complex than a food chain and shows where there may be
competition for food resources.
13. Competition: competition for food is when two animals eat the same food.
14. Resource: Food is a resource, something that an organism needs.
Homework for Week October 15-19, 2012
15. Marine Ecosystem: an ocean or saltwater bay environment.
16. Plankton: microscopic aquatic organisms that drift in the water. Some of them are
plantlike, and some are animal-like. They are very important to food webs in
freshwater and marine ecosystems.
17. Phytoplankton: are tiny plantlike organisms. They are producers in freshwater and
marine ecosystems.
18. Zooplankton: are microscopic animals. They are consumers in freshwater and
marine ecosystems.
4th Grade
Environments
Investigation 3