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Ecosystem Test Study Guide
What is used to show the flow of energy in a food chain or web? An arrow
What happens to energy as it moves from step to step in a chain or web? It is transferred
What is the first living thing in a food chain? producer
What is the first consumer called? Primary consumer
What does the first consumer eat? The producer
Animals that eat only plants are called? herbivores
What does the second consumer eat? The primary consumer
Animals that eat plants and animals are called? omnivores
Animals that eat only animals are called? carnivores
What organism feeds on dead plants and animals and helps recycle them? decomposer
List two examples of decomposers: maggots, bacteria, fungi, snails, worms, etc.
What is a community? A group or organisms that live near one another and interact
What is a population? All the organisms of the same species
What is a habitat? A special place where plants and/or animals live
What is an organism? A living thing
What makes up an ecosystem? All the living and non-living things that depend on one another for
survival
17. What would happen to the ecosystem if the producers all disappeared? All the organisms would
die out.
18. Define adaptations. The changes organisms go through that help them survive in their
environment
19. What is camouflage and why do animals use it? Camouflage is an adaptation animals use to blend in
to their surroundings. They use it to hide from their predators.
20. Define endangered. In danger of becoming extinct, or dying out
21. Define extinct. no longer exists
22. What is an invasive species? A species that does not belong in a particular environment, but is
there and can destroy it
23. What are some threats to animals’ survival? Deforestation (cutting down the forest), climate
change, and overexploitation (hunting species faster than they can reproduce)
24. What is resemblance? how two or more organisms are alike
25. What does scarcity mean? A shortage, or very little of something
26. What is hibernation, why is it important, and what is one animal that hibernates? Hibernation is a
deep sleep that some animals go into to protect themselves from the cold. Ex: bears, skunks,
deer mice, squirrels, bats, hedgehogs, etc.
27. What begins all food chains? The sun
28. What is a fossil? The preserved remains of an organism
29. What information can we learn about animals from a fossil? How different plants and animals are
related to each other and how and where they lived
30. Who studies fossils? Paleontologists