Science
Stage 4
NEW SOUTH WALES
D E PA R T M E N T
OF EDUCATION
AND TRAINING
Australian
environments
Set 2: A closer look at relationships
Number: 40631
Title: Australian Environments
This publication is copyright New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET), however it may contain
material from other sources which is not owned by DET. We would like to acknowledge the following people and
organisations whose material has been used:
Extracts from Science Syllabus Years 7-10 @ Board of Studies, NSW 2003
Photograph © Tom Brown
Photographs © Jane West
Photograph © Julie Haeusler
Introduction pp vii-x
Set 1 p 3
Set 1 p 18, Set 2
p 9, Set 5 p 5
Set 1 p 36
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CLI Project Team acknowledgement:
Writers:
Editor:
Illustrators:
Rhonda Caddy, Monika Khun, Michael Manahan
Jane West
Tom Brown, Barbara Gurney and Rhonda Caddy
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Published by
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© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2005.
i
Australian environments
Here are the names of the lessons in this unit.
Set 1
☞
Who cares?
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Do you care?
Who is interested in environments?
Environmental jobs
Looking at Australian environments
Describing ecosystems
Set 2
A closer look at relationships
Lesson 6
Another look at living things
Lesson 7
Who eats what?
Lesson 8
Decomposers
Lesson 9
Food chains
Lesson 10
Food webs
Set 3
Another look at organisms
Lessons 11 and 12
Adaptations
Lessons 13 and 14
Endangered organisms
Lesson 15
Australians who study organisms
Set 4
Look for yourself!
Lesson 16
Lesson 17
Lesson 18
Lesson 19
Lesson 20
Looking more closely
Looking around you
Sensing your environment
Animals in your environment
Temperature and rainfall
What happens if?
Lesson 21
Lesson 22
Lesson 23
Lesson 24
Lesson 25
What if there is a bushfire?
What if there is a drought?
What if there is a flood?
What if humans keep making changes?
Over to you
Set 5
Australian environments Set 2
ii
Set 2: A closer look at relationships
Contents
What will you learn in Set 2? ...................................................................iii
What do you need for Set 2? ....................................................................iv
Lesson 6
Another look at living things .............................. 1
Lesson 7
Who eats what? ..................................................... 5
Lesson 8
Decomposers ......................................................... 9
Lesson 9
Food chains .......................................................... 13
Lesson 10
Food webs ............................................................ 17
Suggested answers ................................................................................... 21
Send-in pages ............................................................................................ 29
Australian environments Set 2
iii
What will you learn in Set 2?
In Set 2, you will have opportunities to:
•
identify features of living things
•
explain why living things need to respire
•
judge between living and non-living things
•
judge between plants and animals
•
explain why plants are needed
•
judge between producers and consumers
•
complete sentences about decomposers
•
explain why decomposers are important
•
describe what a food chain shows
•
draw a food chain
•
trace food chains in a food web
•
show the role of decomposers in a food web
•
arrange organisms into a food web
•
identify producers in a food web
•
extract information from text and diagrams.
Australian environments Set 2
iv
What do you need for Set 2?
Here is a reminder of the items you need for Set 2.
Lesson 10
•
scissors
•
glue or sticky tape
•
green and yellow coloured pencils
Australian environments Set 2
1
Lesson 6
Another look at living things
What do you remember about living things? Let's see if you can
recognise things around you as living or non-living.
Here are 15 things:
air
dog
butterfly
grass
clouds
gum tree
moss
mould (fungus)
paper
person
sand
stone
water
wooden toy
worm
Write each thing into the correct column in the table below.
Living things
Non-living things
Compare your table with the one in the answer pages.
How are the living things like each other?
Underline the five best answers below.
They grow.
They reproduce.
They help people.
They can sing.
They are brown.
They are made of cells.
They can run.
They are small.
They respond to changes.
They need food.
Australian environments Set 2
2
Can you distinguish between plants and animals?
Animals and plants reproduce, respire (release energy from food),
respond to changes, grow and repair themselves.
So they are organisms (living things).
Here are ten organisms:
bird
coral
cabbage
fish
gum tree
koala
seaweed
spider
worm
you
Write each thing into the right column in the table below.
Plants
Animals
Compare your table with the one in the answer pages.
What is the most important difference between plants and animals?
Plants make their own food but animals feed on other living things.
Do you remember how plants make food?
Plants carry out a chemical process called photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is really a combination of two words:
photo (which means light)
synthesis (which means making)
Photosynthesis means making food in the presence of light.
Plants are living things, just as animals are. They need energy to
grow, reproduce and respond. They get their energy from the food
they make in photosynthesis.
Can animals carry out photosynthesis? No, animals take in food that
is already made. Some animals eat plants. Some animals eat other
animals that live on plants.
Finish this sentence.
Plants are important in ecosystems because
______________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Australian environments Set 2
3
Classifying using criteria
When you sort organisms into similar groups, such as plants and
animals, you are classifying them.
To classify things, you use criteria (say CRY-teer-ee-ya).
Criteria are features or characteristics that show the difference
between things.
Which criteria did you use to separate plants and animals on page 2?
Did you use these features?
•
Animals move.
Coral shells are fixed in place but
the coral polyps inside the shells
are free to move in and out of the shell.
•
Animals have to take in food
that is already made.
They can’t produce their own food.
1.
Which of these criteria is more important for distinguishing
animals from plants? Why?
2.
What are two criteria for classifying organisms as plants?
Put a star beside the more important one.
•
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
•
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Check your answers.
Australian environments Set 2
4
a
a
When you look at the cells of plants and animals, you can see other
differences that distinguish these groups of organisms.
a
cell membrane
cell wall
cytoplasm
vacuole
chloroplast
(containing chlorophyll
for photosynthesis)
nucleus
Generalised animal cell
3.
Generalised plant cell
What are three other criteria for classifying organisms as plants?
Put a star beside the most important one.
•
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
•
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
•
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Check your answers.
4.
Check your understanding of similarities and differences
between plants and animals by completing the following table.
Use ticks to show your answers.
Which organisms…
(a) carry out respiration to release energy?
(b) carry out photosynthesis?
(c) need to take in food?
(d) contain the green chemical chlorophyll?
(e) respond to changes around them?
(f) reproduce their own kind?
Check your answers.
Exercise 6
Now complete send-in Exercise 6.
Australian environments Set 2
plants
animals
5
Lesson 7
Who eats what?
When you produce something, you make it. When you consume
something, you use it up.
Plants produce their own food. They are called producers.
Animals cannot make their own food. They must eat plants or
animals that eat plants. They are called consumers.
Reading about producers and consumers
Three young children were asked to observe animals eating.
Underline the names of living things that the children saw.
Tony’s story
At the zoo I saw a monkey eat peanuts, leaves and small grubs that
live in the bark of a tree. The grubs were eating the rotting bark and
leaves.
Marie’s story
I saw gulls eating fish by the seashore. The gulls also ate bread and
lettuce from my sandwiches. One of the gulls landed on the water
and was eaten by a shark. The shark must have come close to the
shore looking for kingfish. The kingfish were eating the same fish as
the gulls.
Kim’s story
On the farm I saw horses, sheep and cattle in the paddocks.
They were all eating grass. Rabbits and kangaroos were also eating
the grass but I saw a fox get one of the rabbits in the evening.
One night, the farmer killed a young sheep and we had lamb and
vegetables for dinner.
In the table following, write the names of all the producers and
all the consumers from each story. Remember that producers are
usually plants and consumers are usually animals.
Australian environments Set 2
6
Who’s story?
Producers
Consumers
Tony’s
Marie’s
Kim’s
Check your answers on the answer pages.
Let’s look at feeding relationships
Sometimes it is useful to classify animals according to what they eat.
•
Animals which only eat other animals are called carnivores.
(The Latin word caro means flesh. Voro means to swallow.)
•
Animals which eat only plants are called herbivores.
(Herba is a Latin word for grass.)
•
Animals which eat both plants and animals are called omnivores.
(In Latin, omnis means all.)
Here are some examples:
carnivore (CAR-nee-vaw) – dog, lion, eagle, shark, spider, snake
herbivore (HER-bee-vaw) – deer, sheep, goat, caterpillar, giraffe
omnivore (OM-nee-vaw) – human, chimpanzee, pig, fish, chicken.
Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
Look back at the stories told by Tony, Marie and Kim. This time,
deduce (work out) which type each animal is according to what it eats.
(Plants make their own food – they don’t eat – so they cannot be
classified as carnivores, herbivores or omnivores!)
Australian environments Set 2
7
Classify the animals from each story by writing them in the correct
column in this table.
Who’s story?
Carnivores
Herbivores
Omnivores
Tony’s
Marie’s
Kim’s
Check your table by comparing it with the one in the answer pages.
Animals near where you live
Can you think of some animals that live near you?
Can you classify them using feeding relationships?
Write the names of some animals on the lines below.
Three to five animals on each line should be enough.
carnivores:
________________________________________________________________________________________
herbivores:
________________________________________________________________________________________
omnivores:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Look at the suggestions in the answer pages.
Who cares?
List three jobs in which it would be important to be able to
distinguish between:
(a) plants and animals
Australian environments Set 2
8
(b) carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
Look at the suggestions and read the comments in the answer pages.
Exercise 7
Now you are ready to complete this send-in exercise.
Australian environments Set 2
9
Lesson 8
Decomposers
Have you ever wondered what would happen if garbage did not rot away?
Decomposers break down rubbish. They use it as food.
Rubbish comes from people. It also comes from other living things.
Decomposers change rubbish into simpler substances
that other living things can use.
The two main kinds of decomposers are bacteria and fungi.
Bacteria
Bacteria are very very small. They are single cells.
Most bacteria are helpful. You could not live without them!
Some bacteria cause diseases and can damage the environment.
Fungi
© Jane West
Fungi can be tiny single cells. But usually, fungi contain many cells.
Some fungi form mushrooms.
Australian environments Set 2
10
Most fungi are helpful. You could not live without them!
Some fungi cause diseases and can damage the environment.
Summary
1.
Complete these sentences about decomposers.
Words:
bacteria
cells
decomposers
diseases
fungi
many
rubbish
things
Sentences:
(a) Decomposers are living
.
(b) Decomposers break down
and give out
simple substances for other organisms to use.
(c) Bacteria and fungi are
.
(d) Bacteria are very small because they are single
.
(e) Fungi can be single cells or they can have
(f)
Some fungi and bacteria cause
(g) Most
and
cells.
and damage.
are helpful.
Please check your answers.
2.
Why are decomposers important?
Classifying bacteria and fungi
In Lesson 6 and Lesson 7, you considered some of the criteria that are used
to classify plants and animals. How are bacteria and fungi classified?
At the moment, living things are classified into five kingdoms.
(I say ‘at the moment’ because classification is created by scientists
to help them to understand and organise organisms. Scientists could
agree to classify organisms in a different way, and provided most
scientists agree, living things would then be grouped differently.)
Australian environments Set 2
11
KINGDOMS
living things
plants
animals
fungi
monera
protista
make their
own food by
photosynthesis;
unicellular or
multicellular
obtain food
from other
organisms;
unicellular or
multicellular
obtain food
from other
organisms;
unicellular or
multicellular
cyanobacteria
(blue-green algae)
make their
own food by
photosynthesis;
other bacteria
absorb food from
other organisms;
unicellular
euglena make
their own food by
photosynthesis;
amoeba and
paramecium
obtain food
from other
organisms;
unicellular or
in colonies
Use information in the key above to answer these questions.
3.
Name the five kingdoms of living things.
4.
Which kingdoms contain members that can produce their own food?
5.
Multicellular means composed of many cells.
Which kingdoms contain members that are multicellular?
6.
What are bacteria?
7.
Fungi are often grouped with plants.
For example, do you think of mushrooms as a vegetable?
Why are fungi placed into a separate kingdom?
Please check your answers.
Australian environments Set 2
12
The five kingdoms group living things by their structures.
(Increasingly, organisms are also being classified using information
from their DNA and genes.)
Fungi and bacteria belong in separate kingdoms but they are grouped
together as decomposers because they function in ecosystems in
similar ways. Some animals can also be grouped as decomposers.
For example, worms can feed on rubbish from living things and
break it into simpler substances. (Do you have a worm farm to break
down your kitchen scraps?)
In the next lessons, you will see how plants, animals and decomposers
interact in ecosystems.
Australian environments Set 2
13
Lesson 9
Food chains
All this eating! Eating to survive. Animals and decomposers must
eat other living things (or stuff made by living things) to get food.
Plants make their own food.
Why do all living things need food?
All living things need energy to grow, to repair themselves, to move
and to reproduce. Living things get the energy they need from food.
They release energy from food when they respire.
The process of releasing energy from food is called respiration.
Write a sentence about why living things need to respire.
Use these words in your sentence: food, energy, respire (or respiration).
Passing on energy
Do you remember the stories that Tony, Marie and Kim told in Lesson 7?
Here is Tony's story again.
Tony’s story
At the zoo I saw a monkey eat peanuts, leaves and small grubs that
live in the bark of a tree. The grubs were eating the rotting bark and
leaves.
1.
2.
Which animal (or animals) in this story:
(a) eats leaves?
________________
(b) eats grubs?
_________________
(c) eats bark?
_________________
(d) eats peanuts?
______________
Circle yes or no to answer these questions.
(a) Do monkeys eat grubs? yes/no
(c) Do grubs eat leaves?
(b) Do grubs eat peanuts? yes/no
(d) Do grubs eat monkeys? yes/no
Please check your answers.
Australian environments Set 2
yes/no
14
What is a food chain?
A food chain is a simple way to show how energy is passed
from one living thing to another. It shows the feeding relationships
between organisms. It is a way the organisms interact.
Look at the words below linked with arrows. They make a food chain.
Each arrow means ‘is eaten by‘.
bark Æ grub Æ monkey
What does this food chain mean?
•
bark Æ grub means that the bark is eaten by the grub.
•
grub Æ monkey means that the grub is eaten by the monkey.
•
bark Æ grub Æ monkey means that the bark is eaten by the
grub and, in turn, the grub is eaten by the monkey.
Energy is passed from the bark to the grub and on to the monkey.
The original source of all energy is the Sun. Light energy is trapped
in the food that plants make during photosynthesis. So a food chain
always starts with a plant, or producer.
The energy in the plant is taken in by whatever eats the plant.
The energy is passed on to whatever eats the plant eaters and so on.
Here is another food chain.
grass Æ kangaroo Æ dingo
3.
What does this food chain mean?
Can you draw a food chain?
4.
Limpets, seaweed and starfish live in an ocean pool.
Limpets eat seaweed and starfish eat limpets.
Use words and arrows to make a food chain.
limpet
seaweed
Check your answers.
Australian environments Set 2
starfish
15
Here is another food chain.
grass Æ rabbit Æ fox
This food chain shows that a rabbit eats grass and, in turn, the rabbit is
eaten by a fox. The fox is called a predator and the rabbit is the prey.
5.
Now draw a food chain using these organisms: cat, wheat, mouse.
Are your arrows going the right way? Did you start with the plant?
Is the cat a predator of the mouse? Is the mouse the cat’s prey? Well done.
Look in the answer pages if you would like to see this food chain.
Most food chains have more organisms in them.
Can you put four living things into a food chain?
6.
Draw a food chain for these organisms: eagle, grass, sparrow, grasshopper.
The sparrow is the predator of the grasshopper but it is the prey of the eagle.
Look in the answer pages for this food chain.
7.
Draw a food chain to show the feeding relationships between
these five living things: shark, crab (carnivore), prawn (herbivore),
seaweed, octopus (carnivore).
Look in the answer pages for this food chain.
In these food chains, can you see which animals are predators?
Can you see which animals are prey? Some animals are both predators
and prey; for example, the sparrow, crab and octopus.
8.
Plants are never predators; they are always prey. Why?
There is an explanation in the answer pages.
Australian environments Set 2
16
How well do you understand simple food chains?
Check your understanding of food chains by completing these tasks.
9.
Three food chains are drawn below. They all have errors in them.
In the space below each, redraw the food chain correctly.
(a) seaweed ¨ shellfish ¨ octopus
(b) galah Æ wheat Æ eagle
(c) lizard ¨ lettuce ¨ fox ¨ snail
10. Here are the names of seven living things: grasshopper, fish,
shark, grass, kookaburra, lizard, seaweed.
These organisms can be arranged into two separate food chains.
Draw these food chains in the space below.
11. Look at this food chain.
weed
slug
willy wagtail
(small bird)
Decide if these statements are true (T) or false (F).
(a) The weed is a consumer.
_____
(b) The slug eats the small bird.
_____
(c) The snake depends on the slug.
_____
(d) The snake is a herbivore.
_____
(e) The small bird is the prey of the slug.
_____
(f)
The snake is a predator.
_____
(g) The small bird is a carnivore.
_____
Well done! Now check your answers in the answer pages.
Australian environments Set 2
snake
17
Lesson 10
Food webs
Animals usually eat different kinds of living things.
So a single food chain does not show the whole story.
Feeding relationships are more complex.
Do you remember Tony's story about the monkeys and grubs at the zoo?
The story is on page 13.
All these food chains are in Tony's story.
•
leaves Æ grub Æ monkey
•
bark Æ grub Æ monkey
•
leaves Æ monkey
•
peanuts Æ monkey
These four food chains can be drawn together in the same diagram.
This type of diagram is called a food web.
Use your finger to trace each food chain in this food web.
monkey
grub
peanuts
bark
leaves
Food webs show the feeding relationships between organisms
in an ecosystem. But something is missing from this food web.
It is the decomposers.
When the monkey and grub die, they will rot away.
Peanuts, bark and leaves also rot away.
Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi make this happen.
Write the word decomposers beside the food web above.
Then draw a dotted arrow from each living thing in the web
to the word decomposers.
Compare your food web with the one in the answer pages.
Australian environments Set 2
18
1.
Use the pictures on page 35 to complete this food web.
seagull
crab
starfish
sea lettuce
sea anemone
chiton
mussel
zooplankton
barnacle
2.
Can you see the producers? They are the plants.
Colour the producers green.
3.
Can you see the decomposers?
Colour them yellow.
4.
Draw two food chains (with words and arrows) from this food web.
Australian environments Set 2
19
Can you interpret a food web?
5.
Here is another food web. If you can answer the questions about
this food web, you are doing well.
fox
small bird
bandicoot
caterpillar
lettuce
grass
tree roots
(a) Write the names of the producers.
(b) Write the names of the consumers.
(c) Which group of organisms in the ecosystem have not been
shown in this food web?
(d) Which animals are the herbivores?
(e) Which animals are the carnivores?
(f)
Which animals are the prey of the fox?
(g) What do the arrows in the food web mean?
Please check your answers.
Australian environments Set 2
20
6.
Now try these problems.
eagle
hawk
bower bird
flying fox
flowers
fruit
(a) Which animals are the prey of the hawk?
grass seed
____________________________________________
(b) Which animals are predators of the flying fox?
____________________________________
(c) What food do the flying fox and bower birds have to share?
________________
(d) Imagine that all the flying foxes were killed by a mystery disease.
Describe what might happen to:
i.
the eagles
ii.
the bower birds.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Check your answers.
What do you notice about food webs?
Look for these features in food webs. Notice that:
•
they all begin with producers
•
they are made up of food chains joined together
•
they show the feeding relationships among organisms
•
if one link in the food web changes then this has an effect on
other organisms in the community.
Exercise 10
Please complete this send-in exercise now.
Australian environments Set 2
21
Suggested answers
Lesson 6
Page 1
Another look at living things
Here are the things sorted into living and non-living.
Living things
Non-living things
butterfly
dog
grass
gum tree
moss
mould
person
worm
air
clouds
paper
sand
stone
water
wooden toy
The five best answers are:
• they grow
• they need food
• they reproduce
• they are made of cells
• they respond to changes.
Page 2
Can you distinguish between plants and animals?
Plants
cabbage
gum tree
seaweed
Animals
bird
coral
fish
koala
spider
worm
me
Plants are important in ecosystems because they carry out photosynthesis
to make food for themselves and for the other organisms in the ecosystem.
Australian environments Set 2
22
Lesson 6 continued
Classifying using criteria
Page 3
Page 4
1.
It is more important for classifying to know that all animals take in
food from other organisms.
2.
Three distinguishing features of plants are that:
they carry out photosynthesis to make food
*
• they are usually green (because they contain chlorophyll)
• they stay fixed on one spot.
3.
Four distinguishing features of plant cells are that:
*
•
•
•
4.
they have chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll, to carry out
photosynthesis
they have boxy-shaped cells
they have a large vacuole
they have a cell wall.
Here is the completed table.
Which organisms…
plants
animals
(a) carry out respiration to release energy?
✔
✔
(b) carry out photosynthesis?
✔
✔
(c) need to take in food?
(d) contain the green chemical chlorophyll?
✔
(e) respond to changes around them?
✔
✔
(f) reproduce their own kind?
✔
✔
Australian environments Set 2
23
Lesson 7
Who eats what?
Reading about producers and consumers
Page 5
The living things in Tony’s story are:
monkey, leaves, grubs, bark, tree.
(The bark may be alive or dead.)
Page 5
The living things in Marie’s story are:
gulls, fish, lettuce, shark, kingfish.
(The lettuce may be alive or dead.)
The living things in Kim’s story are:
horses, sheep, cattle, grass, rabbits, kangaroos, fox, people (farmer, Kim),
vegetables. (The vegetables may be alive or dead.)
Page 6
Here is the completed table.
Who’s story?
Page 7
Producers
Consumers
Tony’s
tree (leaves and bark)
peanuts
monkey
grubs
Marie’s
lettuce
gulls
fish
shark
kingfish
Kim’s
grass
vegetables
horses
fox
sheep
cattle
rabbits
kangaroos
people (farmer, Kim)
Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
Who’s story?
Carnivores
Tony’s
Marie’s
Kim’s
kingfish
fox
shark
Herbivores
Omnivores
grubs
monkey
?small fish?
gulls
horses
cattle
rabbits
sheep
kangaroos
Australian environments Set 2
people
24
Lesson 7 continued
Page 7
Animals near where you live
carnivores: dogs, cats, foxes, some insects and birds, snake and shark
herbivores: sheep, cattle, horses, possums, some insects and birds, some fish
omnivores: your family and friends, rats and mice, cockroaches, ants, some birds.
You may have written other animals as well.
Pages 7 & 8
Who cares?
(a) It would be important for gardeners, farmers and greenkeepers to be able
to identify whether things were animals or plants so that they could
decide if they were pests that needed to be killed. A cook might need to
classify organisms to know how to cook them or store them. A biologist
would need to group them as plants or animals to understand how they
fitted into the ecosystem.
(b) Zoo keepers, farmers, pet shop owners and aquarium keepers would need to
classify animals to know which ones could be kept together. A farmer
would also need to know whether an animal was eating the crop or whether
it was a carnivore that was devouring pests. A biologist would need to
know what they ate to understand how they fitted into the ecosystem.
Lesson 8
Page 10
Decomposers
Summary
1.
(a) Decomposers are living things.
(b) Decomposers break down rubbish and give out
simple substances for other organisms to use.
(c) Bacteria and fungi are decomposers.
(d) Bacteria are very small because they are single cells.
(e) Fungi can be single cells or they can have many cells.
(f) Some fungi and bacteria cause diseases and damage.
(g) Most bacteria and fungi are helpful.
2.
Decomposers are important because they break rubbish into
simpler substances that other living things can use.
Australian environments Set 2
25
Lesson 8 continued
Classifying bacteria and fungi
Page 11
Lesson 9
Page 13
3.
plants, animals, fungi, monera, protista
4.
plants, monera, protista
5.
plants, animals, fungi
6.
Bacteria are unicellular organisms that absorb food from other organisms.
7.
All plants make their own food (carry out photosynthesis) but no fungi do.
Food chains
Here is a sample answer.
Living things need to respire to get energy from their food.
Passing on energy
Page 14
1.
(a) monkey, grubs
(b) monkey
(c) grubs
(d) monkey
2.
(a) yes
(b) no
(c) yes
(d) no
What is a food chain?
3.
Here is a sample answer.
Grass is eaten by the kangaroo then the kangaroo is eaten by the dingo.
You could also write:
energy from the grass is passed to the kangaroo and then to the dingo.
Can you draw a food chain?
Page 14
4.
seaweed → limpet → starfish
Page 15
5.
wheat → mouse → cat
6.
grass → grasshopper → sparrow → eagle
7.
seaweed → prawn → crab → octopus → shark
or
seaweed → prawn → octopus → crab → shark
8.
Plants make their own food. They do not need to eat other organisms.
(The exception is the carnivorous plants, such as Venus fly traps,
pitcher plants and sundews. These plants catch small insects to get
nitrates from them because the soils where they live do not contain
this nutrient.)
Australian environments Set 2
26
Lesson 9 continued
Page 16
How well do you understand simple food chains?
9.
(a) seaweed → shellfish → octopus
(Did you change the direction of the arrows so that they mean
‘is eaten by’?)
(b) wheat → galah → eagle
(Did you swap the position of the galah and the wheat?)
(c) lettuce → snail → lizard → fox
(Did you change the order of animals and plants and the arrows?)
10. seaweed → fish → shark
grass → grasshopper → lizard → kookaburra
11. (a) F – Weeds are plants; plants make their own food so the weed is
a producer.
(b) F – The arrow in this direction → means that the slug is eaten
by the small bird.
(c) T – In this food chain, small birds need slugs for food. Since the snake
eats small birds, the snake is indirectly dependent on the slug.
(d) F – The snake eats small birds. It also eats other animals.
Herbivores eat only plants so the snake is not a herbivore.
(e) F – The prey are caught and eaten by predators. Since the slug
is eaten by the small bird, it is the prey of the small bird.
(f)
T – The snake eats small birds; it is a predator.
(g) T – The small bird eats other animals; it is a carnivore. It is
possible that the small bird could also eat plants, in which
case, it would be an omnivore. But the food chain is simple
and shows only one of the possible feeding relationships.
Australian environments Set 2
a
27
Lesson 10
Page 17
Food webs
Your food web should be similar to this.
monkey
decomposers
grub
peanuts
Page 18
1.
bark
leaves
Here is the completed food web.
seagull
crab
starfish
rock cod
sea lettuce
sea anemone
chiton
mussel
prawn
bacteria
seaweed
zooplankton
barnacle
2.
The seaweed and sea lettuce are the producers.
3.
The bacteria are the decomposers.
4.
There are many food chains in the web. Start with a producer and
follow the arrows!
Australian environments Set 2
28
Lesson 10 continued
Can you interpret a food web?
Page 19
5.
(a) lettuce, grass, tree roots
(b) caterpillar, bandicoot, small bird, fox
(c) decomposers
(d) caterpillar, bandicoot
(e) small bird, fox
(f)
small bird, bandicoot
(g) The arrows show the direction that energy (or food) moves through
the food web. The arrows show ‘who eats what’.
Page 20
6.
(a) flying fox, bower bird
(b) eagle, hawk
(c) fruit
(d)
i. The eagles would only have the bower birds as prey; so would
the hawks. The eagles and hawks would have to fight over
this food. The eagle numbers would probably decrease.
ii.
The bower birds would have more pressure from the eagles
and hawks. Their numbers could decrease. They wouldn't
have to share the fruit with the flying foxes any more.
They could have more food available to them.
Australian environments Set 2
a
29
Send-in page
Lesson 6:
Name
______________________________
Another look at living things
Exercise 6
This exercise is an opportunity for you to show that you can:
•
use structural features to classify organisms
•
describe the role of photosynthesis in ecosystems.
a
cell wall
1.
Here is a diagram of a mushroom cell.
(A mushroom is a type of fungus
so this is called a fungal cell.)
Compare this cell with the plant and
animal cells on page 4.
cell membrane
vacuole
nucleus
cytoplasm
(a) What is one criterion (more than one criterion are called criteria)
that would distinguish this fungal cell from a plant cell?
(b) What is one criterion that you would use to distinguish this
fungal cell from an animal cell?
(c) Could this fungal cell carry out photosynthesis? Why or why not?
Australian environments Set 2
30
2.
Why are plants an essential part of every ecosystem?
Australian environments Set 2
31
Send-in page
Name
Lesson 7:
______________________________
Who eats what?
Exercise 7
This exercise is an opportunity for you to show that you can:
• define words used to describe feeding relationships
1.
Here is the grid and the answers for a crossword puzzle.
1
2
4
C O N
P
A
R
R
O M N
S U M E
3
I
H
V O R E
D
I
R
U
V
B
C
O
I
E
R
R
E
R
V
5
F O O D
R
6
P H O T O
S Y N T H E
S
I
S
Write clues to go with this puzzle.
Across:
1.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
4.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
5.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
6.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Down:
1.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
2.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
3.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Australian environments Set 2
32
Australian environments Set 2
33
Send-in page
Lesson 10:
Name
______________________________
Food webs
Exercise 10
This exercise is an opportunity for you to show that you can:
1.
•
construct food chains to show relationships in an ecosystem
•
construct a food web to show relationships in an ecosystem
•
evaluate the way you made the food web and the accuracy of
the feeding relationships you have shown
•
describe the role of respiration in ecosystems.
Use the drawings of organisms on page 35 to make some food chains.
Then combine the food chains to make a food web.
Use the back of this page to present your food web.
You will need to glue on the drawings and add arrows to show
the transfer of energy.
2.
Do you think your food web is right? Why or why not?
3.
All the organisms in the food web carry out respiration.
Why do they need to?
Australian environments Set 2
34
Present your food web here.
Australian environments Set 2
aa
35
Organisms for food webs
Use these drawings in Lesson 10
seaweed
prawn
bacteria
rock cod
Use these drawings in send-in Exercise 10
The boxes group organisms to help you to predict the feeding relationships.
Cut out all of the pictures. Use as many of them as you can in your food web.
(You do not have to use them all.)
PRODUCERS
CARNIVORES
OMNIVORES
starfish
sponge
unicellular algae
(phytoplankton)
sea slug
sea anemone
cyanobacteria
barnacle
crab
DECOMPOSERS
HERBIVORES
seaweed
bacteria
mussel
Australian environments Set 2
limpet
unicellular animals
(zooplankton)
36
Australian environments Set 2