Animal Unit Interactive Notes
Animal Unit Interactive Notes Table of Contents....19
Illustrations: Structural and Behavioral Adaptations….20
Notes: Structural and Behavioral Adaptations….21
Illustrations: Understanding the Plant & Animal World….22
Notes: Understanding the Plant & Animal World….23
Illustrations: Food Webs within a Community….24
Notes: Food Webs within a Community....25
Illustrations: Plants and Animals at Work….26
Notes: Plants and Animals at Work….27
Illustrations: Human Influences on Ecosystems….28
Notes: Human Influences on Ecosystems….29
Structural and Behavioral Adaptations
Life can be rough for animals out in the wild. They need to provide
themselves with food, water, shelter, and space in order meet different
life needs. That’s why animals have special adaptations. An adaptation
is something an animal has on its body or an act an animal performs to
help it meet a life need.
A structural adaptation is something an animal has on its body
to help it meet a life need. Claws, teeth, feathers, gills, camouflage and
tails are all examples of structural adaptations.
A behavioral adaptation is an act an animal performs in order to
meet a life need. Building a nest, hunting, and spinning a web are all
examples of behavioral adaptations.
Understanding the Plant & Animal World
In order to understand plants and animals and how they survive,
we need to understand their environment. All living things live in an
environment that provides them with food, water, shelter, and space.
Without these, living things will not survive. This is why not all living
things can survive in the same environment and why we should never
move living things from one environment to another.
Animals are an important part of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is
a natural unit that includes living and nonliving things that interact with
each other. The nonliving things in an ecosystem include water, rocks,
air, light, and soil. The living things in an ecosystem are all the plants and
animals. For example, in a swamp you can find many different kinds of
animals and plants, but you can also find all of the nonliving things
mentioned above. A swamp is an example of an ecosystem.
Within each ecosystem is a community. A community is made up
of populations of species that live in the same place at the same time; all
of the living things in an ecosystem. For example, the swamp has many
different kinds of animals living in it. Alligators, cottonmouths, cypress
trees, and black bears are just a few of the living organisms found in a
swamp. All of these living organisms make up a community.
A community is divided into different populations. A population
refers to all of the organisms (plants and animals) of the same species
that live in the same place at the same time. For example, alligators live
in swamps. All of the alligators living in the swamps at the same time
make up a population.
Each living organism needs a home to live in. An organism’s home
is called a habitat. For example, the alligators of the swamp make their
homes in the water. The cottonmouths of the swamp make their homes
under rocks or in the trees. The black bears of the swamp make their
homes under rocks, in dens, and in trees. The cypress trees of the
swamp make their homes alongside the water or in the water of the
swamps.
Food Webs within a Community
We have learned that a community is made up of populations of
species that live in the same place at the same time; all of the living
things in an ecosystem. A community works like a team. There are three
different types of team members within a community- producers,
consumers, and decomposers. A producer is a green plant that makes
its own food. It gets its energy to make its own food from the sun. The
producer is a food source for the consumer. The consumer consumes,
or eats the producer or other living organism. They get their energy from
the producer or other living organism that they eat. After the consumer
dies, the decomposer eats and breaks down the dead consumer, which
turns it into nutrients to go back into the ground. A decomposer gets its
energy from eating and breaking down the consumer. This process of the
energy passing from the sun to a producer, consumer, and decomposer is
called a food chain. When you put lots of food chains together and they
connect, we call this a food web. A food web shows how food chains are
related within an ecosystem. When all of these team members in a
community are doing their jobs and working together, we have a
successful food web. Whenever these team members do not do their job,
communities begin to disappear.
Plants and Animals at Work
Every organism within a community belongs to one of these team
members (producer, consumer, decomposer) and has a niche. A niche is
a function or job that an organism performs in the food web of its
community. It also includes everything the organism does and needs in
its environment in order to survive. No two types of organisms have
exactly the same niche within a community.
During its life cycle, an organism’s niche may change. This means
that what an organism eats, what eats it, and how it interacts with other
organisms in its community will change. For example, butterflies begin as
a tiny egg laid on the underside of leaves. As an egg, its niche is to eat
the food sources located inside the egg so it can grow enough to hatch
then grow into a larva. However, it is also a food source for other animals
within the ecosystem. When the larva (caterpillar) hatches from the egg,
its niche is to eat the surrounding leaves, provide a food source for birds,
and grow into a pupa. If the larva survives and is done growing, it enters
the pupa stage where its niche is to feed on any food source within the
chrysalis so it can grow and change into a butterfly. The butterfly’s role
now is to help in plant pollination by drinking the nectar from flowers. The
female will mate, reproduce by laying more eggs, and the cycle begins
again.
A community depends on various niches to occur within it. This
means that the living things within a community must have niches and
these niches must change during a living organism’s life cycle. If living
organisms do not perform their niches, there would be a negative impact
on ecosystems. For example, think about what would happen if birds
stopped eating larvae. Larvae would continue to develop and grow, but
there would be too many of them. They would continue to eat leaves, but
with so many of them eating the leaves, producers would be destroyed.
Consumers that feed on producers would begin to die without their food
source and ecosystems would be destroyed. Therefore, even if a living
organism’s niche is to feed on another living organism, this niche is very
important and must occur so that the ecosystem does not become
unbalanced and destroyed.
Human Influences on Ecosystems
Plants, animals, and humans need a clean, safe place to live.
Humans have a lot to do with keeping ecosystems clean and safe. They
can negatively influence the ecosystems, making them unclean and
unsafe for all living things. However, they can also positively affect the
ecosystems, making them clean and safe for all living things.
There are several ways in which humans can negatively influence
ecosystems. The most common negative influence is pollution. Pollution
happens when harmful substances are added to Earth’s water, air, or
land. Water pollution occurs when wastes from homes or factories are
dumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Cars and factories burning
gasoline, oil, and other fuels cause air pollution. However, it can also
come from our homes. Many objects in our homes run on energy, so
when you leave lights or a television on you are not using, the energy
used to run these objects pollutes the air. Land pollution occurs when
people litter. This is when trash is thrown on the land, polluting the soil.
This pollution destroys ecosystems by making living things sick and killing
plants and animals. Humans can also negatively influence ecosystems
when they take living things out of their ecosystem. Cutting down trees
to build houses destroys animals’ habitats.
Not all things that humans do negatively influence ecosystems.
Humans can also positively influence ecosystems. Cleaning up litter can
keep living things healthy and alive. Planting new trees can provide living
things with shelter, space, and food. Turning off objects when you are
not using them saves energy, keeping the air clean. Humans can also
help protect living things by fighting to make laws that protect all living
things and make it against the law to do them harm.