Ecology Assessment #1 Review Retake
Name ______KEY______________________________
Ecosystems and Cycles
Date ____________________ Period __________
1. Define ecosystem: A community that includes all the living (biotic) and nonliving
(abiotic) things found in a certain area.
2. An ecosystem is made up of biotic and abiotic things. Note: abiotic things are NOT
nonliving organisms. Abiotic is not something dead. It has to be something that has
never lived (example: water).
3. Plants can make their own food, so we classify them as producers.
4. Circle the interaction that includes two biotic parts from the riverbank ecosystem:
Fish swimming in the river
Deer eating the grass (this is the best answer)
Beaver using wood to build a dam
5. Animals that cannot make their own food for energy must get it
from eating other organisms or organic matter. These animals are
known as consumers.
6. Define consumer: An organism that feeds on other organisms or organic matter
because it cannot make its own food.
7. List examples of consumers from the riverbank ecosystem: There are many consumers
in the riverbank environment but remember we are learning about relationships
between things that live or are in a certain area. So think of other things, living and
nonliving, that consumers need in order to survive. (basic needs)
8. Draw an example of the interaction of an abiotic part and a biotic part of the riverbank
ecosystem. Label the abiotic and biotic parts.
Abiotic – water, soil, sunlight, rocks, air (oxygen and carbon dioxide)
Think of the biotic things that need those abiotic things.
9. Plants carry on photosynthesis to make their own food (energy).
10. Explain the process of photosynthesis:
In the presence of light, the process by which green plants and blue-green algae use CO2
and water to produce food (or energy) for the plant.
11.Explain how two of the organisms in your classroom aquarium cooperate with each
other to complete the oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle.
During the daytime when there is light, the duckweed, elodea and algae process sunlight,
CO2 and water into energy for the plant. During this process the plant releases oxygen. The
fish and snail need that oxygen in order to preform respiration which allows them to
convert their food into energy. During respiration, the fish and snail release CO2 which the
plants need for photosynthesis
12. Both producers and consumer use oxygen to release energy in a process called
respiration.