Download Ch. 9 Study Guide 2

Environments – Chapter 9
1. What is an ecosystem?
- Ecosystem – the living and nonliving parts of an environment act together,
or interact.
-The living parts of an ecosystem depend on nonliving parts.
*Example: plants (living) needs sunlight, soil, air, and water to
grow.
-The living parts include plants, animals, and other living things.
-Sunlight, air, water, and soil are all nonliving part of an environment.
-The living parts also depend on one another.
*Example: animals eat other living things and can use plants
for shelter.
-Habitat – a place where a living thing makes its home, it has everything a
plant or animal needs to live.
-A habitat can be the water in a wetland, the soil beneath a rock, or
even a crack in a sidewalk for an ant.
-Population – All the living things of the same kind that live in the same
place make up a population.
-Community – All the populations that live in the same place make up a
community.
2. How do humans affect their environment?
-Natural events, such as floods and hurricanes change the environment.
-People can cause changes that harm the environment.
*Example: they cut down trees to build roads, farms, and houses.
Animals depend on the trees to meet their needs can no longer live
there.
*Example: Pollution – any harmful material added to the air, water,
or land.
-Pollution can harm or kill plants and animals.
-You can help reduce pollution by cleaning up litter in a park
and instead of riding in a car, you can walk, ride a bike, or
take a bus.
-People can also do things that help the environment in a positive way.
*Example: The National Park System was started to preserve, or save,
land in the United States.
*Example: Recycle – when you change something so it can be used
again. You can recycle objects made of glass, metal, plastic, or paper.
3. How can you protect Louisiana’s species?
-When a species becomes extinct, there are no more living individuals of
that species.
*Natural events and people can cause extinction.
-A species whose population is so small that it is at risk of becoming extinct
is endangered.
*An example of an endangered species is the red-cockaded
woodpecker.
*The Louisiana black bear is a threatened species.
-Species that may soon become endangered are called threatened.
-Species that are no longer endangered or threatened are said to be
recovering.
*Some species that were once endangered in Louisiana have
recovered.
-Some examples include the American alligator, the bald eagle,
and the brown pelican.
*Today laws protect animals from being hunted. The Endangered
Species Act is a set of laws that protect endangered and threatened
species.
4. How do we use natural resources?
-A natural resource is an important material from Earth that living things
need.
*Examples: Trees are natural resource used for lumber and to make
paper products.
*People cut trees down for wood. They plant new trees to replace
those cut down.
-A resource that can be replaced in a fairly short amount of time is a
renewable resource.
*Trees, sunlight, air, and water, are renewable resources because
they cannot be used up.
-A resource that cannot be replaced is a nonrenewable resource.
*Examples include coal, oil, copper, iron, aluminum, and natural gas.
*Petroleum is a also nonrenewable resource used to make plastic.
-Examples: plastic bottles, pens, and hair combs.