| A | B |
|---|
| Pond | small body of still, fresh water that collects in low areas of land. |
| What are 4 key elements that support the pond? | water, oxygen, food, and algae |
| What is an ecosystem? | Ecosystem: all the plants & animals of the pond area along with the physical environment of that area. |
| What is a habitat? | the area where a plant or animal lives. |
| What does a pond habitat support? | a community of living things which depend upon one another for survival & are adapted to live in a small, freshwater ecosystem. |
| What is a food chain? | the term used to describe "who eats what" in a given community. |
| What does a food chain consist of? | producers, consumers, and decomposers. |
| What are producers? | plants and algae. They use the sun's energy to make food. |
| What are consumers? | Consumers feed on plants and other animals |
| What are primary consumers? | They feed on producers |
| What are secondary consumers? | They feed on primary consumers. |
| What are tertiary consumers? | they feed on dead or decomposing plant or animal matter |
| What are decomposers? | They include fungi & bacteria. They break down the dead plant and animal matter & recycle it into vital nutrients to be used again by the other living inhabitants of the pond. |
| How does a pond change in Winter? | The water surface may freeze if the temp. reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit, causing a layer of ice to form across the surface. To survive, animals such as turtles and frogs may bury themselves in mud at the bottom. |
| How does a pond change in Spring? | Surface ice melts & water gets warmer. When surface water warms to 39.5 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes heavier and sinks, resulting in a stirring or mixing of the pond water. As the pond gets warmer, plant life becomes more abundant, and many different animals return to the pond to breed. |
| How does a pond change in Summer? | The bottom of a pond stays cool, protected from the sun's heat by the surface water |
| How does a pond change in Autumn? | A stirring or mixing of the water in the pond takes place once again, as cooler surface water begins to sink. |
| What makes a pond a pond? | Shallow enough to allow plants to reach the surface anywhere over its entire area & it does not have waves that start to erode its shoreline like a beach. |
