Interactions in the Environment

A single animal living in an environment

A community of living and nonliving things that interact together

A large forest filled with trees and birds only

collection of animals that do not depend on each other

Tree

Squirrel

Soil

Butterfly

They are consumers that eat other animals

They are decomposers that break down waste

They are producers that make their own food

They are predators that hunt herbivores

Mutualism

Commensalism

Parasitism

Competition

It becomes healthier

Nothing changes

New species immediately take over

It can be thrown off and become less stable

The nonliving things in an ecosystem

The weather and temperature in an area

The living things in an ecosystem

Only the animals in an ecosystem

Soil

Bird

Tree

Mushroom

They provide food for animals

They help recycle nutrients

Life couldn’t exist without them

They eat other organisms

Two wolves hunting together

Fish swimming in water and needing oxygen to survive

A squirrel eating an acorn

Bees pollinating flowers

Nothing will change in the ecosystem

The biotic components become abiotic

New species automatically appear

The ecosystem can be affected and lose its balance

To break down dead organisms

To control animal populations

To eat other animals for energy

To make their own food using sunlight

Decomposer – fungus

Producer – rabbit

Consumer – tree

Producer – fox

They make energy from sunlight

They create food for other organisms

They help recycle nutrients into the soil

They keep populations from becoming too large

There would be too many predators

Dead matter would pile up and nutrients wouldn’t return to the soil

Plants would stop needing sunlight

Consumers would start making their own food

They work separately with no connections

Consumers control producers, but decomposers aren’t involved

They form a cycle that recycles energy and nutrients through the ecosystem

Producers depend on decomposers for sunlight