Download Interactions in Ecosystems

Name ______________ Species _______________
Teacher ______________
Subject _____________ Per ____
Date _____________
Interactions and Symbiosis Form A
How does an eagle affect a snake? How does a deer affect grass? You might answer that eagles eat
snakes, and deer eat grass. All living things have to get their food somehow. You’ve learned that plants make
their own food and thus are called producers. In comparison, animals have to get their food by eating other
living things, and thus are called consumers.
Producers and consumers interact, or affect one another, in complicated ways. When you think about
the savannah in Africa, you might imagine a gazelle running away from a lion. This is a predator-prey
relationship. The predator is a consumer that captures and eats another consumer. The prey is the consumer
that gets eaten. When you think of how organisms interact,
you probably think of predator-prey relationships.
Question:
However, there are many other ways that organisms affect
Are predators and
each other! A close relationship between two species is
prey BOTH
called symbiosis. There are three types of symbiosis:
consumers?
parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism.
If you have a dog or cat, it may have gotten
Symbiosis:
worms at some point. Worms attach themselves to
RELATIONSHIP BTW 2 Species:
your pet’s intestines and eat its food. When a
puppy gets worms it can get bad pain, diarrhea, and may die. This
type of relationship is called parasitism. Parasitism is when one
organism benefits but the other is harmed.
If you have ever watched small birds, you may have seen
them hide in bushes. They fly out to get their food, and then return to the bush to hide
from predators. In this situation, the birds are benefiting from the bushes. The bushes are
not helped or hurt. A symbiosis where one organism benefits and the other are not
affected is called commensalism.
Your body cannot digest most of your food on its
own! There are lots and lots of bacteria that live in your
intestines. The bacteria get their food from the food that
your body can’t eat. Then, they turn it into food your body can digest. This type
of symbiosis is called mutualism. Mutualism is when both organisms benefit.
Directions: Define key terms and identify the symbiotic relationships
A producer is __________________________________________________________________.
A consumer is _________________________________________________________________.
A predator-prey relationship is _____________________________________________________.
Symbiosis is ___________________________________________________________________.
Parasitism is ___________________________________________________________________.
Commensalism is _______________________________________________________________.
Mutualism is ___________________________________________________________________.
What are the three types of symbiosis?
________________________
_______________________
__________________________
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Name ______________ Species _______________
Teacher ______________
Subject _____________ Per ____
Date _____________
IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF SYMBIOSIS
Word Bank: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism.
9. Mosquitoes get their food by sucking other animal’s blood, sometimes giving it disease.
What type of symbiosis is this? _____________________________________
10. Lichens are crusty things that grow on trees and rocks. They are a combination of two organisms. One is a
fungus and the other is a bacteria. The bacteria do photosynthesis and makes food for itself and for the
fungus. The fungus provides protection for the bacteria. What type of symbiosis is this?
This is an example of ___________________________________
11. Sea anemones have long, stinging tentacles. Clown fish are bright fish that live in coral reefs and are not
harmed by anemone stings. They hide in the tentacles of anemones without harming the anemones.
This is an example of ____________________________________
12. Barnacles live by using long, feathering appendages to sweep the water for small, free-floating organisms.
Barnacles attach to whales, rocks, and shells to gain a foothold. The barnacle gains a place to live and the
whales or shells are unharmed.
This is an example of ____________________________________
13. The fungus known as "chicken of the woods" grows on trees. The fungus breaks down the tree and gets its
nutrients that way. The tree decays, gets weak, and becomes very vulnerable.
This is an example of ____________________________________
14. The goby fish sometimes lives with a shrimp. The shrimp digs and cleans up a burrow in the sand in which
both the shrimp and the goby fish live. The shrimp is almost blind leaving it vulnerable to predators when
above ground. In case of danger the goby fish touches the shrimp with its tail to warn it. When that happens
both the shrimp and goby fish quickly retract into the burrow.
This is an example of ____________________________________
15. Pinworms are extremely common intestinal parasites. It's hard to avoid pinworm infestation; their eggs are
often airborne. Once pinworms are snugly ensconced inside the human body, they crawl outside the anus at
night, causing severe itching, and then lay their eggs.
This is an example of ____________________________________
16. Weasels eat arctic hares. Which is the predator? ______________________________________
17. Gray wolves eat caribou. Which is the prey? _________________________________________
Name ______________ Species _______________
Teacher ______________
Subject _____________ Per ____
Date _____________
Food Web
To read the food web: The arrows show what each organism eats. The arrow points to the organism that does
the eating. For example, the snowy owl eats the artic hare and the lemming.
Bacteria, dead
organisms in soil
Decomposer—Organism that gets food by breaking down dead organisms into small molecules.
Herbivores—An organism that eats only plants.
Carnivore—An organism that eats only other animals.
Omnivore—An organism that eats both plants and animals.
Name ______________ Species _______________
Teacher ______________
Subject _____________ Per ____
Date _____________
Reading the Taiga Food Web
DIRECTIONS: Use the “Taiga Food Web” to answer the questions.
1. Name one producer ____________________________________________________________________.
2. Name three primary consumers
____________________________________________________________________.
3. Name four secondary consumers
______________________________________________________________________.
4. Name three tertiary consumers
______________________________________________________________________.
5. Categorize ALL the organisms in the food web. Use the definitions to help.
Decomposer
Herbivore
Carnivore
Omnivore
Squirrel
6. Predict what would happen to the ecosystem if all the insects and beetles died.
The number of ants would ______________________________________________________.
The number of seeds and cones would ____________________________________________.
The number of bears would _____________________________________________________.
7. Predict what would happen to the ecosystem if all the black bears died.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________