Summary
Most living things don’t have it as easy as our pets and houseplants. In the wild, organisms have to find what they need in their ecosystem. That’s a group of living things interacting with one another and their environment. Each organism needs a habitat with the right conditions for its species. Thousands of species can live in one ecosystem. When different populations of different species interact, they form a community—but it's not always neighborly! Organisms have to compete for limited resources, and carve out a place for themselves—a niche—in the ecosystem. They have to find food if they’re consumers, or find energy to make food if they’re producers. Decomposers take a totally different approach, and break down waste such as dead organisms. It’s part of the cycling of matter, like carbon. Lately, human actions have disrupted this process, leading to climate change. Press "play" to discover how ecosystems support life on Earth!
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
A few questions to talk through after watching Ecosystems:
- What is one new thing you learned about ecosystems?
- Can you explain it to a partner in your own words?
- Where might you see this in the real world?
- What is one question you still have?
Quick work-a-long
Try it:
- Write one sentence explaining ecosystems.
- Draw or give one example of your own.