Jeremy Roberts
SD standard 9-12.L.3.1
Taiga
Manmade
Ocean
Ecosystems
Rainforest
Grassland
Desert
Tundra
What are the
Ecosystems?

 a community of living and non-living things that
work together.
 can be as large as a desert or a lake or as small as a
tree or a puddle.
 includes soil, atmosphere, heat and light from the
sun, water and living organisms.
 All the parts work together to make a balanced
system
 Without water there would be no life.
Taiga
Biome characterized
by coniferous forests.
Taiga is the world's largest
terrestrial biome and covers:
in North America most of
inland Canada and Alaska
Rainforest
Forests characterized by
high rainfall, with definitions based
on a minimum normal annual
rainfall of 68-78 inches.
Rainforests are also responsible for
28% of the world's oxygen
LAKE
A body of relatively still fresh or
salt water of considerable size, localized
in a basin, that is surrounded by land.
Many lakes are artificial and are
constructed for industrial or agricultural
use.
Grassland

Vegetation is dominated
by grasses and other herbaceous
plants and are found in
most ecological regions of the Earth.
Receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less
than enough to support growth of most plants. Most
deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than
16 in.
Tundra

Tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing
seasons, there are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine
tundra, and Antarctic tundra.
A major body of saline water, and a
principal component of the hydrosphere.
Approximately 71% of
the Earth's surface is covered by ocean
Area of land devoted primarily to the
practice of producing and managing
food (produce, grains, or livestock)
City
A relatively large and
permanent settlement,
generally have complex systems
for sanitation, utilities, land
usage, housing,
and transportation.

Experiment with players in the ecosystems:
* Producers
* Consumers
* Decomposers
*
In any given ecosystem, most organisms will
carve out a niche for themselves where
they can obtain all of the necessities to
survive. Often, different species within the
ecosystem will compete for the resources
that a niche provides and the first
colonizers of the successive ecosystem
are, of course, producers.
As these pioneer plants die and decay, they
add organic material to the soil, which,
over time, will allow for secondary
succession—generally larger and more
delicate producers such as trees.
• Herbivores—animals that feed solely on plants—make up the
second trophic level.
• Predators that eat herbivores comprise the third trophic level; if
larger predators are present, they represent still higher trophic
levels.
• Organisms that feed at several trophic levels (for example,
grizzly bears that eat berries and salmon) are classified at the
highest of the trophic levels at which they feed.
Consumers
Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores
Decomposers
 Process large amounts of organic material and
return nutrients to the ecosystem in inorganic
form, which are then taken up again by primary
producers. Energy is not recycled during
decomposition, but rather is released, mostly as
heat (this is what makes compost piles and fresh
garden mulch warm).
 Include bacteria, fungi, molds, worms, and insects,
break down wastes and dead organisms and return
nutrients to the soil
• On land primary productivity
thus is highest in warm, wet
zones in the tropics where
tropical forest biomes are
located. In contrast, desert
scrub ecosystems have the
lowest productivity because
their climates are extremely
hot and dry.
• In the oceans, light and nutrients
are important controlling
factors for productivity. In the
oceans, light penetrates only
into the uppermost level of the
oceans, so photosynthesis occurs
in surface and near-surface
waters. Among aquatic
ecosystems, algal beds and
coral reefs have the highest net
primary production, while the
lowest rates occur in the open
due to a lack of nutrients in the
illuminated surface layers