What is an Ecosystem?

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

• Ducks eat plants and bugs.
• Ducks are interacting or communicating with other ducks.
• Ducks fertilize the plants.
• Plants release oxygen for the ducks to breathe.

Between living & non-living things

• Ducks breathe air (oxygen).
• Ducks are swimming in the lake.
• Duck drinks the lake water.
• Plants are growing in the lake, and taking nutrients from the water.
• Plants are taking light from the sun, and is converting food from it.

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Second image:

Within a system of living things

• The fish eat bugs.
• Fish eat smaller fish and frogs.
• Fish swim through plants.​​

Between living & non-living things

• ​Fish swim in the water.
• Plants release oxygen into the water.
• Plants grow in the ground and the water.

Reflect & Synthesize:
Answer the following questions in your blog post. Remember to have at least one follow-up sentence for each question, when possible.

1. What do living things get from their ecosystems?
2. What evidence do you have to support your answer to Question 1?
3. What does the term ecosystem mean, based on your experience in this lesson? (Don't use the definition from the BIG IDEA here. Put it into your own words.)
4. Brainstorm at least one question you have about Ecosystems that you hope you learn from this unit.
5. Look at the image below that shows a portion of a forest ecosystem. Name at least five components (living or non-living things) of the ecosystem that you can either observe directly or infer. 
6. What are three (or more) interactions that might occur in this portion of the forest ecosystem?

Answers:

1. They get soil, oxygen, sunlight and sometimes water. It depends what ecosystem you are in if you can get water or not.
   
2. The trees and flowers and plants grow because of the soil, and the sunlight. They get rain water, but sometimes there are ponds in an ecosystem. The oxygen keeps all the animals alive, and the soil helps the insects.
   
3. A place where living things and non living things live/are. They also interact with each other.
4. Why can't some animals live in a certain ecosystem?
5. Water, deer, grass, flowers, trees, and rocks.
6. The deer drink the water. The deer might interact with the other deer. The deer will eat the berries and nuts that are in the forest.