S3U4L1 - Ecosystems and Interactions Part 4

You probably looked at the characteristics of each habitat. For instance, you know that a pond is a fairly shallow body of water surrounded by land.

It has plants that float on its surface, plants that grow underwater, and plants that grow on its shore.

You may have recognized that the animals in the pond picture, like tadpoles, are freshwater animals.

Ponds have standing water and are often deeper than wetlands.

A wetland may have standing water, or it may only have very wet, spongy soil.

Ponds stay wet all year long.

Some wetlands are dry for part of the year.

Ecosystems are the largest unit, and populations are the smallest.

Communities contain many populations.

An ecosystem contains the community of living things plus all the nonliving things in an environment.