Natural Sciences and Technology Grade 6-A - Thunderbolt Kids

NEW WORDS
• food web
• microorganism
• Water provides a habitat for many dierent organisms and
allows plants and animals to survive and breed.
• Water isauniversal solvent and allows important chemical
reactions to take place. It is akey ingredient for
photosynthesis where plants create glucose (sugars) from
sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
• Water plays an important role in plant reproduction as some
seeds need to be dispersed by water. (Try and remember
which seeds get dispersed by water.)
5.3 Food webs
We have now had alook at what makes up an ecosystem and that
there are relationships between the living and non-living things. In
an ecosystem, plants and animals are also connected to each other
due to their feeding relationships. The plants in an ecosystem are
called the producers and the animals are the consumers.
QUESTIONS
Do you remember what a producer andaconsumer does in an
ecosystem (from Gr 5work but also from the photosynthesis
work you started this term with)? Write an answer below.
There are dierent types of consumers.
• herbivores only eat plants and plant products.
• carnivores only eat meat and meat products (eggs).
• omnivores eat plant and animal products.
86 Life and Living