Topic: Earth's Resources
Week of November 16th-20th, 2009
Vocabulary Words Chapter 6: Changes In Ecosystems
1. inherit: the hereditary process in which plants and animals receive half
of the genes from each parent.
2. mutation: a change in an organism's genes.
3. structural adaptation: changed body parts that help the organism survive
in its ecosystem.
4. behavioral adaptation: are inherited behaviors that help animals survive.
5. extinct: when there are no members of a kind of organism left alive.
6. hervivores: consumers that only eat plants.
7. carnivores: consumers that eat other animals (meat).
8. omnivores: consumers that eat both plants and animals.
9. decomposers: consumers that eat waste and dead organisms.
10. producers: are organisms that make their own food for energy.
11. consumers: are organisms that cannot make their own food. They usually
eat other organims to get energy to stay alive and grow.
12. ecosystem: all living and non-living things in an area.
13. adaptation: a trait that allows an organism to better fit into an
ecosystem
Things to Know for the TEST
Study Guide for Chapter 10
Lesson 1 How do ecosystems change?
- Organisms cause changes in ecosystems.
- Some changes help, some harm.
- People make physical changes to ecosystems.
- People change ecosystems both accidentally and on purpose.
Lesson 2 How do species change?
- Heredity is the process by which offspring receive half of their genes
from each parent.
- Because offspring inherit genes from both parents, they differ from both
parents.
- An adaptation is a trait that allows an organism to better fit into an
ecosystem.
- Structural apadatation are changes in body parts that help an organism
survive; behavioral adaptations are instincts that help an organism survive.
- Some behavioral adaptations are learned.
Lesson 3 How do changes cause more changes?
- Some organisms change their behavior in response to a change, such as the
kinds or numbers of other organisms in their ecosystems.
- When changes occur in an ecosystems, some organisms migrate to a place
where conditions are more favorable.
- Species that cannot move or adapt to the changes may become extinct.
- Fossils give clues to survival and extinction in ecosystems of the past.
Review Questions
Lesson 1
1.) What can cause changes in ecosystems? Pg. 167
2.) Explain how changes in an ecosystems can sometimes be helpful and
sometimes harmful? Pg. 167
