Natural Sciences and Technology Grade 6-A - Thunderbolt Kids

5 Ecosystems and food webs
NEW WORDS
• ecosystem
• dependent
• interdependent
78
KEY QUESTIONS
• What is an ecosystem?
• How often does it rain in arainforest or in adesert?
• Now that I know how people eat, how do animals get their
food?
• Why can animals only eat one type of thing - for example
why won't a great white start eating kelp or why won't a
tortoise hunt amouse?
Nothing in the world can live truly on its own. No plant or animal,
and certainly no human. Living things are connected to each other,
they depend on each other and on the nonliving things in their
environments.
In this chapter we will take a closer look at ecosystems and
examine the dierent kinds of ecosystems that we get around the
world, see how animals, plants and microorganisms depend on
each other and learn about food webs and feeding relationships in
an ecosystem.
5.1 Dierent ecosystems
An ecosystem is an area where living and non-living things depend
on each other in many dierent ways. An ecosystem can survive
on its own without any help or products from any other sources
because the living and non-living things in the ecosystem depend
on each other for their survival.
There are many dierent types of ecosystems on our planet:
• rivers
• mountains
• sea and the rocky shores
• ponds and wetlands