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Ecological Relationships
1
The main ecosystems are maquis, garigue and steppe
Minor ones include patches of woodland, coastal wetlands, sand dunes,
freshwater and rupestral communities and those of caves, vallies,
beaches, seabed, etc.
A woodland (bosk) is a land
dominated
by
_________.
Examples of trees in a Maltese
woodland are Holm Oak (Ballut)
and
Aleppo
Pine
(Znuber).
Exampleof a woodland in Malta is
___________. Many birds and
other living things live in a
woodland.
A maquis (makkja) is a type
of land dominated by small
shrubs such as carob trees
(harrub),
olive
trees
(zebbug),
and
lentiscus
(deru).
Many birds and
other living things live in a
maquis.
Buskett
A garigue (xaghri) is a
type of land dominated by
rocks with shallow pockets
of soil.
The main
vegetation is aromatic
herbs and low plants
examples
thyme
(saghtar),
spurges
(tenghud)
and
thisle
(xewk).
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Had-Dingli
Steppe (steppa) is a type of land that resulted from the degradation of
maquis and garigue mainly due to grazing.
It is dominated by
vegetation such as Crown daisy (lellux), Bargeman’s cabbage (gargir),
and cape sorrel (haxixa ngliza).
Disturbed land (fl-imharbat) is a type of land that is dominated by a
variety of plant species, many of which are aliens. Examples of plants
that grow in such land are tree spurge (tenghud tas-sigar), and borage
(fidloqqom).
Mellieha
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Saline marshlands are an interface between the marine, freshwater
and terrestrial environments.
Saline marshland il-Maghluq Marsaxlokk.
Sand dunes are heaps of sand on which a few types of vegetation
grow.
Ramla Bay Gozo.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Rupestral communities are vegetation communities that grow on cliff
faces example caper (kappar). Example Dingli Cliffs.
In vallies grow freshwater communities examples poplar tree (sigra talLuq), bay laurel (rand) and Bear’s breeches (hannewija).
Chadwick lakes
Any living thing is called an ______________. Unicellular organisms are
the smallest and most primitive forms of _________ things. They are
____ cell big. Then there are bigger living things that are made up of
more cells. These are referred to as _____________ organisms. The
word _________ refers to all living things. Non-living objects like rocks
are not organisms.
Living organisms are classified as follows:
1. Viruses – are very very small organisms that we cannot even see
them with a light microscope. They are so small that we can only
see them using an electron microscope that is a very powerful
microscope. Viruses are on the borderline between living and nonMrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
Ecological Relationships
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living as they start to live only if they get inside a living cell. If
they are not inside a living cell they are not living.
2. Bacteria – are very small organisms but not as small as viruses. We
can see them with a light microscope, like the microscopes that we
find in the school lab.
3. Protists – are unicellular organisms i.e. one cell big. We can only
see them with a light microscope.
Amoeba
4. Fungi – example mushrooms, yeast, moulds etc. . These do not feed
by photosynthesis. Therefore they are not like plants.
Plants – are green because they feed by photosynthesis.
5. Animals – can be invertebrates or vertebrates. Invertebrates are
animals without a backbone and vertebrates are those animals that
have a backbone.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Cnidarians e.g. corals, jelly fish, sea Fish e.g. swordfish
anemones
Flatworms e.g. tapeworm
Amphibians e.g. frog
Roundworms e.g. Ascaris
Reptiles e.g. snake, crocodile etc.
Segmented worms e.g. earthworm
Birds e.g. sparrow, robin etc.
Molluscs e.g. octopus, snail etc.
Mammals
sheep
e.g.
cat,
dog,
human,
Arthropods e.g. fly, spider, crab,
millipede
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Echinoderms e.g. sea star
Exercise: Classify these organisms as unicellular, fungi, plants or animals?
a. mushroom ________________;
b. deer ___________________
c. horse _________________;
d. sea star _________________
e. pea plant _________________; f. jelly fish _________________
g. bacilli ___________________;
g. tomato plant _____________
h. Amoeba __________________; i. mould ___________________
j. coral ____________________;
k. bird ____________________
l. sea anemone _______________;
m. mosquito ________________
n. crab _____________________; o. octopus _________________
p. cat _____________________;
q. influenza virus _____________
r. salmonella bacteria _________;
s. girl ___________________
Different ___________ live in different environments. We call the area
where a species lives a _________.
Different habitats include the
oceans, underground areas, green lands, forests, cold areas and warm
desert area. In order for species to survive they need to compete for
the resources like for example air, food and water. Therefore, organisms
adapt themselves according to the environment they live in.
For example animals that live in very cold
regions of the world have the following
adaptations:
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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1. Animals that live in very cold places e.g. ice, have a thick layer of
fat called _________ just underneath their skin which helps to
keep them warm.
2. Some animals like squirrels and brown bears
____________, spending the winter fast asleep in a
warm den.
3. Birds have wings and so can move
further and faster than mammals.
Most of them migrate to warmer
areas to escape the winter.
Other examples of adaptations are shown by animals that live in the
desert:
In deserts, water is so scarce, so most desert animals get their water
from the food they eat. But they must carefully conserve the little water
they obtain in this way, so desert animals prevent water leaving their
bodies in a number of different ways.
1. Some, like kangaroo rats and lizards, live in burrows which
do not get too hot or too cold and have more humid (damp) air
inside. These animals stay in their burrows during the hot days
and emerge at night to feed.
2. Camels have a hump so as to store fat. This allows
them to go without food and water for a long
period of time. The came has also long eyelashes so
as to protect its eyes from desert sand. They can
also close their nostrils and have hair in their ears so as to protect
themselves from the sand. Its lips are thick and leathery, allowing to
eat cactus without hurting their mouths.
3. A Cactus is a plant which is able to live in the dessert. It
has tiny spines instead of leaves to reduce the water lost
by evaporation. Since it lives in places where water is
scarce, it has very long roots.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Other adaptations shown by other animals:
1. Certain predators, such as the cheetah, need to
run really fast so as to capture their prey. A
cheetah's long step and flexible back and limb
joints help to make it the world's fastest
mammal.
2. A giraffe has a long neck so as to reach the leaves
from the trees and to see its predators.
3. In forests, most animals live on the branches of
the trees where they can find food. Some animals
have developed some good ways of travelling about
the forest. Flying lemurs and flying
squirrels do not actually fly, but have
broad flaps of skin between their front
and hind limbs that enable them to glide
from tree to tree to escape predators
or to find food.
4. South American monkeys have tails that act like an extra limb to
help them swing from branch to branch.
5. Certain animals, like certain lizards and frogs have special
______ so that they can stick to the walls and climb on
to the tress so that they can catch their prey.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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6. Certain animals have a similar __________ to the surroundings. In
this way, the predators won’t see them easily and has so have more
chance to survive.
Predators and Prey.
A _____________ is an animal that eats other animals. The animals
that predators eat are called _____________.
The organisms that feed on producers
(example: ______________) are called
___________. Animals that eat other
animals are called _______________.
Secondary consumers are ___________
of primary consumers, but also the preys
of tertiary consumers.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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____________ levels are the feeding position in a food chain such as



primary producers,
herbivore,
primary carnivore, etc.
1. Green plants form the ________ trophic level. These are the
pr________.
2. Herbivores form the __________ trophic level. Examples of
herbivores, i.e. organisms that feed on plants are ___________,
________________.
3. Carnivores form the _________ and even the __________ trophic
levels. Carnivores eat ____________ and examples of carnivores are
_________, _______________ and ______________.
The feeding of one organism upon another in a sequence of food transfer
and is known as a food chain. Another definition is the chain of transfer
of energy (which typically comes from the sun) from one organism to
another. A simple food chain is like the following:
plant  caterpillar  frog  snake  owl.
In this food chain, the plant is the
pr___________.
The caterpillar is the primary co_____________
because it feeds on the plant.
The frog is the secondary con_______________
because it eats the caterpillar. It is not a
herbivore because it doesn’t feed on plants, but it
is a ____________ because it feeds on another
caterpillar.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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The snake, a tertiary ___________. It feeds on the frog, that had fed
on the caterpillar, that had fed on the plant. Because the snake feeds on
frogs, it is called a car____________.
The owl is the forth con_______________. It is also a carnivore
because it eats the snake. The owl eventually dies and its remains are
broken down by decay-causing bacteria and fungi. These are called
dec____________.
Rewrite this foodchain:
____________  ___________  ___________ _____________
In an ecosystem there are many different food chains and many of these
are cross-linked to form a food web. Ultimately all plants and animals in
an ecosystem are part of this complex food web.
Although it looks complex, it is just several food chains joined together.
Here are some of the food chains in this food web:
grass → insect → vole → hawk
grass → insect → frog → fox
grass → insect → vole → fox
Find more food chains from this food web.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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
Trophic levels and the energy flow from one level to the next, can be
represented by drawing pyramids. There are 3 types of pyramids:



Pyramids of _________ (that show the number of oraganisms in
each trophic level)
Pyramids of __________ (that show the mass of organisms in each
trophic level)
Pyramids of __________ (that show the amount of energy in each
trophic level).
o




Another example:
many grass plants are needed to feed fewer snails
fewer chickens would be able to feed on the snails
This in turn requires only a few people to eat the chickens that ate
the snails.
so each consecutive level contains fewer organisms than the level
below it.
Draw this pyramid here
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)
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Energy is lost from one trophic level
to another. Energy is lost when the
organism is performing its vital
functions.
What are the effects of humans on the animals and plants?
People may affect the environment in good and bad ways. _________ is
helping the environment and pollution is harming the environment.
Examples of harmful human activities are:
 Deforestation: the cutting down of trees. Many plants and trees
are cut down which are also the homes of many animals.
 Pollution: the pollution caused by humans such as water pollutions.
Whenever there are oil spills many animals die as a result. This also
may have an effect on the food chain!
 Animal hunting: when a certain species is hunted there is also a
chance that a species may become extinct.
 Pesticides: pesticides that are added by farmers to protect
certain crops may end up killing a number of insects.
Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)