Living Things and the Environment

Name Date Class

Living Things and the Environment

(pages 6–11)

Habitats

Key Concept: An organism obtains food, water, shelter, and other things it needs to live, grow, and reproduce from its environment.

• An organism is a living thing. You are an organism.

• A habitat is a place that an organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce. A pond is a frog’s habitat.

• Different organisms live in different habitats. They live in different habitats because they have different needs.

Answer the following questions. Use your textbook and the ideas above.

1. Read each word in the box. In each sentence below, fill in one of the words.

a. A living thing is also called a(an) .

b. A place that a living thing needs to live, grow, and

reproduce is called a(an) .

2. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about habitats.

a. One area may contain many habitats.

b. Different organisms live in different habitats.

c. Each area has only one habitat.

organism environment habitat

Populations and Communities ^■ Adapted Reading and Study

Name Date Class

Biotic Factors

Key Concept: An organism interacts with the living parts of its habitat.

• Each organism affects all the other organisms in its habitat. All the other organisms also affect it.

• The living parts of a habitat include all the living things in it. The living things include all the different plants and animals, for example.

• The living parts of a habitat are called biotic (by AHT ik) factors. Biotic factors include animals, plants, and other organisms.

Answer the following questions. Use your textbook and the ideas above.

3. Is the following sentence true or false? Each organism affects all the other organisms in its habitat.

4. The living parts of a habitat are called factors.

Abiotic Factors

Key Concept: An organism interacts with the nonliving parts of its habitat.

• Each organism affects all the nonliving parts of its habitat. The nonliving parts also affect it.

• The nonliving parts of a habitat are called abiotic factors. Abiotic factors include water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil.

• Plants and algae need certain abiotic factors to make their own food. The food-making process is called

Populations and Communities ^■ Adapted Reading and Study

Populations and Communities

Name Date Class

include

Water

a. Oxygen

b.

Abiotic factors

• Most living things need oxygen to carry out the

processes that keep them alive. You get oxygen from the air you breathe.

Answer the following questions. Use your textbook and the ideas on page 5 and above.

5. Complete the concept map about abiotic factors by filling in the blanks in the circles.

Populations and Communities ^■ Adapted Reading and Study

6. Read each word in the box. In each sentence below, fill in the correct word or words.

a. Plants make their own food in a process called .

b. The nonliving parts of a habitat are called .

abiotic factors photosynthesis biotic factors

Name Date Class

Organism a. b. Ecosystem

Populations and Communities ^■ Adapted Reading and Study

Levels of Organization

Key Concept: The smallest level of organization is a single organism, which belongs to a population that includes other members of its species. The population belongs to a community of different species. The community and abiotic factors together form an ecosystem.

• A species (SPEE sheez) is a group of organisms that look alike and can mate with one another. For example, all lions are of the same species.

• A population includes all the members of the same species that live in an area.

• All the different populations in an area make up a community.All the plants and animals that live in the same forest are a community.

• An ecosystem is the community of organisms in an area and the nonliving parts of the area.

• Ecology is the study of how living things affect one another. Ecology also is the study of how living things affect the environment and how the environment affects living things. Scientists who study ecology are called ecologists.

Answer the following questions. Use your textbook and the ideas above.

7. Complete the diagram below. The diagram shows levels of organization in an ecosystem. The diagram begins at the left with the smallest level of organization.

Name Date Class Populations and Communities ^■ Adapted Reading and Study

8. Draw a line from each term to its meaning.

Term

community ecosystem ecology population species

Meaning

a. group of organisms that look alike and can mate with one another b. all the members of the same

species that live in an area c. the study of how living things

affect each other and the environment

d. all the different populations in an area

e. the community of organisms in an area and the nonliving parts of the area