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Name:_____________________________Date:_____________________
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Interactions in an Ecosystem
Today’s goal: to understand interactions within an ecosystem and identify how changes to an ecosystem
can affect these interactions.
1. Ecological Niche
 A niche is the ______________ of a species within an ecosystem, includes ______________________
___________________________________, what eats it and how it behaves.
2. Types of Consumers
 What each species eats has an _________________________________________ on an ecosystem.

An organism that gets energy by eating other organisms is called a ________________________.
A. Herbivores eat ________________________
B. Carnivores eat ________________________
C. Omnivores eat ________________________ & ________________________
D. Scavengers feed on ________________________________________________________.
E. An organism that gets energy by ____________________________and _____________
_________________________ is called a __________________________. Mushrooms
and ________________________ are decomposers.
3. Food Chains
 Food chains show ____________________________ through an ____________________.

Carnivores linked in a food chain have ____________________________________ with the animals
they eat.

If a hawk eats a mouse, the hawk is the _____________________ and the mouse is the ____________.

Some of the __________________________ in the pine seeds is _______________ to the red squirrel.
Some energy passes to the weasel, then it gets passed to the goshawk.

Food chains show ________________________
______________ through an _______________.
4. Feeding Levels
 A _________________________, or feeding level describes the ___________________ of an organism
in a _______________________.
Food chains don’t really exist in nature

Show only _________________________________
_______________________________

Red squirrels eat more than pine seeds

Red squirrels are _________________ upon by many ___________________________________.
5. Food Web
 A ______________________ is made up of _____________________________ in an ecosystem. The
food chains _______________
__________________________ with one another.
Any change to an ecosystem can affect a food web

The rusty crayfish disrupts an aquatic ecosystem by
o _____________________ for the food eaten by the _____________________________
o _______________________ and young of bass and pickerel
o Fewer worms and snails may cause ____________________________________
o Fewer minnows means less food for the larger fish
6. Energy Pathways

Have you ever noticed that a crowded room can get warm quickly?

That is because people release ________________________________ as they carry out
_________________________________________.

When one organism consumes another, it _____________________________________________
______________________ and releases thermal energy.

When one organism is eaten by another organism, the ______________________________________
in its body is _______________________ to the other organism.

Usually only _____________________________ taken in by organisms ______________________ is
__________________ on to organisms at the ___________________________________