Science : Matter and Energy in Ecosystems

• Plants use sunlight to make food (photosynthesis).
• Animals get their energy from eating plants or other animals.
• Energy is transferred between organisms as they eat, move around, grow, reproduce, and die.
• The sun provides the energy needed by living things on Earth through photosynthesis.
• Photosynthesis converts light energy into chemical energy stored in organic molecules like glucose.
• Most producers get energy from the Sun using the process of photosynthesis
• biotic factors are living matter
• abiotic factors are non living matter
• Decomposers are important to ecosystems because they return vital nutrients to the ecosystem
• Glucose and oxygen are products of photosynthesis
• A consumer gets energy by feeding on other organisms
• The cycling of matter is important because only a limited amount of matter is available so it has to be recycled
• When scientists study photosynthesis in the forest, they should study plants
• When scientists are interested in studying cellular respiration in the jungle, they should study all organisms in the jungle
• Giant pandas live wild in the mountains in China, where they eat bamboo from its forests. The number of molecules that store energy has decreased in both the bamboo and the pandas. The amount of carbon has decreased in the bamboo and pandas
• Climbing ivy grows on the sides of buildings. The ivy on one building has been taking in carbon from the air for several hours. The ivy is in sunlight. The number of molecules that store energy in the ivy has increased.
• Pea plants have been in the sunlight since early morning. What can the pea plants do because they are in sunlight? What does this mean for the number of energy storage molecules in the pea plants?The pea plants can take in carbon from the air. The carbon is used to make energy storage molecules.
• Hippos spend most of their time in rivers, but they come out of the water to eat grass. It is dark out, and this hippo is not eating. Carbon is only moving into the air; it is not moving out of the air.
• Parrotfish live in the ocean and eat plantlike organisms called algae. Sunlight is shining on the fish and the algae. Carbon is moving into and out of the living things, at the same time.
• The products of cellular respiration are Energy (ATP), Water, and Carbon DIoxide.
• cellular respiration take place in the mitochondria
• all living cells perform cellular respiration
• photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplasts
• All the living and nonliving things interacting in a particular area create an ecosystem
• Photosynthesis removes carbon from the atmosphere
• Respiration is the process by which animals take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide.