Summary #7 A Blood System

*HEART*

Summary #6-How Ecosystems Change

Ecological Succession: The gradual replacement of one community by another.

Pioneer Species: The first species living in an area.

Pioneer Community: The first community living in an area.

Climax  Community: The final stage of succession in an area, unless a major change happens.



Summary #5Places to Live Around the World

*Tundra Biome*

In the very cold places of the world, isn´t easy to survive. The soil is frozen, its top surface thawing only during summer, and no trees can grow. Yet plants and amimals that are adapted for the harsh condition thrive. This biome is called tundra. Most of the world´s tundra is found in the north polar region. It is called Artic Tundra. There is a small amount of tundra on parts of Antartica that are not covered with ice. Plus, tundra is found on high altitude montains and is called alpine tundra.

*Taiga*

Taiga, also called boreal forest, is the largest land biome.These forests are found in a broad belt across Europe, Asia and North America : about two thirds are in Siberia, and the rest are in Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada.
In this biome, summers are short and mild and the winters are long, cold and dry.
Plants are mostly evergreen conifers with leaves like needles, such as pine, fir and spruce. Leaves like this minimise water loss and do not get weighed down with snow. The snow slides off the needles. The forest canopy lets in a restricted amount of sunlight, and this limits the understorey growth. The ground is covered with a thick layer of needles and dead twigs, matted together by fungus
Rainfall, or precipitation, mostly falls as snow, usually 40-100 cm each year. Soil is thin and lacking in nutrients.

Animals found in taiga include woodpeckers, hawks, moose, bear, weasel, lynx, fox, wolf, deer, hares, chipmunks, shrews, and bats. Mammals living in the boreal forests have all adapted in various ways to survive the long cold winters. Generally they have heavy fur coats and many hibernate through the winter.
There is extensive logging in boreal forests which is threatening their survival.

*Desert Biome*

A desert is a place that gets just bit of rain every year.

Some deserts not get rain at all.

A desert can be very hot at daytime and cold at night.

Some desert are cold all the time.

*Grassland*

Grasslands are big open areas that get between 25 and 75cm of rain per year. This is less rain than a forest gets and more than a desert  gets.

Grasslands are found on every continent except Antartica. About one quarter of Earth´s land is in the grasslands biome. Grasslands have different names in different countries, such as pampas (South America), prairies (North America), savannahs (Africa), or steppes (Asia).

There are 3 types of grasslands:

*Tall Graslands*

*Mixed Grasslands*

*Short Grasslands*

*Decidous Forest*

Location: Midlatitudes

Climate: Relatively mild summers and cold winter, 76-127cm (30-50 inches) of precipitation a year.

Soil: Rich topsoil over clay.

Plants: Hardwoods such as oaks, beeches, hickories, maples.

Animals: Wolves, deer, bears, and a wide varity of small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and insects.

*Tropical Rain Forest*

Location: Near the Equator

Climate: Hot all year round, 200-460 cm (80-180 inches) of rain a year.

Soil: Nutrient-poor

Plants: Greatest diversity of any biome; vines, orchids, ferns, and a wide variety of trees.

Animals: More species of insects, reptiles, and amphibians than any place else; monkeys, other small and large mammals, including in some places elephants, all sorts of colorful birds.

Summary#4 Surviving in Ecosystem

Surviving in Ecosystems

Simbiosis = Two organisms relate together by helping or harming each other.

Mutualism = Two organism benefit each other.

Parasitism = One organism benefits and the other harms.

Commensalism = Two organisms that benefit each each other not harming but protecting.

Summary #3 Cycles of Life

Water Cycle

The water cycle is the continous movement of water between Earth´s surface and the air, changing from liquid to gas to liquid.



Carbon cycle

The continous transfer of carbon between the atmosphere and living things.



Nitrogen Cycle

The transfer of nitrogen from the atmosphere to plants and back to the atmosphere and directly into plants again.



Summary#2 Food Chains and Food Webs

Food chains and food webs are met food webs describe the successive transfer of energy from plants to the animals that eat them, and to the animals that eat those animals, and so on. A food chain is a model for this process which assumes that the transfer of energy within the community is relatively simple. A food chain in a grassland ecosystem, for example, might be: Insects eat grass, and mice eat insects, and fox eat mice. But such an outline is not exactly accurate, and many more species of plants and animals are actually involved in the transfer of energy. Rodents often feed on both plants and insects, and some animals, such as predatory birds, feed on several kinds of rodents. This more complex description of the way energy flows through an ecosystem is called a food web. Food webs can be thought of as interconnected or intersecting food chainshods of describing an ecosystem by describing how energy flows from one species to another.Food web is the overlapping food chains in a community.

[FOOD WEB]

[FOOD CHAIN]

Summary#1 *Living Things and Their Environment*

An ecosystem is all the living and nonliving things in an area interacting with each other. Most ecosystems are much larger than a jar. Some, like the prairie ecosystem of North America, the deserts of Africa, and the rain forests of Brazil, cover large areas of a country or continent. Freshwater ecosystem cover less space than saltwater ecosystems. Saltwater ecosystems can cover entire oceans. It doesn´t matter where they are or what they look like, all ecosystems have the same parts. All living things need certain nonliving things in order to survive. Abiotic factors include water, minerals, sunlight, air, climate, and soil. All organisms need water. Living things need minerals, such as calcium, iron, phosphorous, and nitrogen. Some living things, like plants and algae, need sunlight to make food. Animals need oxygen to produce the energy for their bodies. Plants an algae need carbon dioxide. The environment must also have the right temperature for organisms to survive. Eac kind of organism, whether an animal, plant, fungus, protist, or bacterium, is a member of a single species. All the organisms of a species living in the same area make up a population. Each species in an ecosystem also has a role or place in the activities of its community.The world is a place of changes. One day the wheater may be dry and cold. The next day it may be wet and warm. In nature ecosystem tend to stay in balance. One population controls the number in another population. Communities help preserve and enrich the soil. Some organisms contribute to the health and well-being of others.

Summary#1*Energy Resources*

Many homes, shools, and business get heat by burning oil or natural gas. Some older buildings still burn coal for heat. Some homes burn wood for heat. The heat in many other homes and businesses comes from electricity. Many common devices, such as lights, computers, radios, TVs, and washers. Some small devices such as flashlights and portable CD players get their electricity from batteries. That electricity comes from a power planet. The power plant makes electricity by using energy from burning fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. It takes a lot of energy to move a car, bus, or train. Public an private transportation is one of the greatest uses of energy in today´s world. Heat from burning fossils fuels can bu used directly to heat homes, schools, businesses, and factories. The heat can also bu used to generate electricity. All fuels have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of using fossil fuels is that they contain a lot of energy. However, fossil fuels take millions of years to form. Burning a fossil fuel also gives off smoke, gases, and other by-products. These pollute the envirotment. Fossil fuel are the remains of once-living things. Natural gaso or oil formed from the remains of tiny ocean plants and animals. These sea creatures died and fell to the bottom of the ocean. There their bodies were buried by layers of sand and mud. One day is to use alternative energy sources such as water, wind, and solar energy. Every watt of electricity we get from a solar cell is one less watt we have to get by burning oil or coal.

Vocabulary #16

Alternative Energy Source: a source of energy other than the burning of a fossil fuel.

Geothermal Energy: Earth´s internal energy.

Biomass: plant matter or animal waste that can be used as a source of energy.

Vocabulary #15

Desalination: getting fresh water from seawater.

Water Cycle: the continuous movement of water between Earth´s surface and the air,changing from liquid to gas to liquid.

Grounwater: water that seeps into the ground into spaces between bits of rock and soil.

Water Table: the top of the water-filled spaces in the ground.

Aquifer: an underground layer of rock or soil filled with water.

Spring: a place where groundwater seeps out of the ground.

Well: a hole dug below the water table that water seeps into.

Reservoir: a storage area for freshwater supplies.

Vocabulary #14

Renewable Resource: a resource that can be replaced in a short period of time.

Ozone Layer: a layer of ozone gas in the atmosphere that screens out much of the Sun´s UV rays.

Fossil Fuel: a fuel formed from the decay of ancient forms of life.

Smog: a mixture of smoke and fog.

Acid Rain: moisture that falls to Earth after being mixed with wastes from burned fossil fuels.

Vocabulary #13

Opaque: completely blocking light from passing through.

Transparent: letting all light through,so that objects on the other side can be seen clearly.

Translucent: letting only some light throught, so that objects on the other side appear blurry.

Polarization: allowing light vibrations to pass through in only one direction.

Refraction: the bending of light rays as the pass from one substance into another.

Convex Lens: a lens that curves outward (is thicker at the middle than at the edges) and brings light rays together.

Concave Lens: a lens that curves inward ( is thicker at the edges than at the middle) spreads light rays apart.

Vocabulary #12

Bioluminescence: light produced by living things.

Light Ray: a straight-line beam of light as it travels outward from its source.

Law of Reflection: the angle of an incoming light ray equals the angle of the reflected ray.

Concave Mirror: a mirror that curves in on the shiny side.

Convex Mirror: a mirror that curves out on the shiny side.

Vocabulary #11

Rock: a naturally formed solid in the crust,made up of one or more minerals.

Igneous Rock: a rock formed when melted rock material cools and hardens.

Sedimentary Rock: a rock made of bits of matter joined together.

Fossil: any remains or imprint of living things of the past.

Metamorphic Rock: a rock formed under heat and pressure from another kind of rock.

Humus: decayed plant or animal material in soil.

Pollution: adding any harmful substances to Earth´s land,water,or air.

 

Rock Cyccle: rocks changing from one form into anther in a never-ending  series of process.