Study Guide

Over the last couple of weeks we have been taking a close-up look at the organisms in Berkshire County, as well as organisms outside of Berkshire County. We defined an organism as any living thing. When I asked you to list the organisms in the Berkshires during our What’s in Berkshire County lab, most people listed dogs, cats, bears, porcupines and wolves. These are all mammals, and they are all organisms, but they only make up a tiny fraction of the things that are alive in our county.

After taking trips outdoors, we learned that there are lots of things that are alive that we rarely think of. We got to see frogs, salamanders, algae, mushrooms, trees and bushes, wooly bears and even a field mouse in one class! After seeing this great biodiversity (variety of life) all around us, it became important to group these organisms so that we knew what kind of organisms they really are. Scientist classify organisms by looking at similar characteristics. If we look at the most general (basic) similarities, we find that all living things can be broken down into three categories. These three very general categories are known as domains. The domain that we live in are Eukaryota. Eukaryotes have cells that have a nucleus. The Eukaryota domain can be further broken down into four smaller categories called Kingdoms. The four kingdoms are as follows:

·Animalia – All animals have to catch their own food, whether its a worm or a piece of grass. They cannot make their own food. Animals include mammals, insects, birds, worms, fish, reptiles, snails and lots more.

·Plantae-- All plants make their own food. They do this by a process known as photosynthesis. Plantae include trees, shrubs and even some algae.

·Fungi -- Fungi absorbs their food from dead organisms. It’s like they have a stomach on the outside of their bodies. Fungi includes mushrooms and mold.

·Protista—This group is the hardest to classify. Some are like animals, some are like plants. Includes algae.

These are the four kingdoms that we have been discussing lately. All living things fall into one of these four kingdoms. When you think of the word kingdom, you may think about the place where a king and queen live, but the place where an organism lives is called something else. A habitat is a place where an organism lives. We saw a grassy field habitat at station one outside, and we also looked at two pond habitats. We noticed that different habitats contained some of the same organisms, as well as some different organisms. Each habitat we looked at had certain requirements that allowed organisms to live there. In order to support life, a habitat must have the following components

· food

· water

· shelter

· wiggle room

If any one of these requirements is missing, the habitat will collapse and nothing can live there! We also learned the terms Community, Popularion and Ecosystem. . A population is a group of the same species living in an area. A community is a group of populations that live in an area that interact with one another. We saw a community of frogs living in the pond. An ecosystem is a place where many communities interact with one another and its environment.

You are a living breathing organism in the kingdom Animalia. In order to live, breathe and take really fun science tests, you have to start your day with a healthy breakfast. Why, you ask? Because all organisms need energy! Without energy, we cannot function. One of the requirements of a habitat is food, so there must be plenty of things to eat in a habitat to sustain life. In each and every habitat, we will find a food chain. A food chain is how energy flows through an ecosystem. In every food chain, you will find three types of organisms, Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers. The energy that enters the food chain almost always ultimately comes from the Sun.

Did you ever wonder why there are so many plants around? Plants happen to be very lucky. They can do something that no other organism (except some algae) can do…..produce their own food. They never have to go searching for food, they just collect sunlight and use photosynthesis to make their own food. Because plants such as vegetables (also known as produce) can make (or produce) their own food, they are called, you guessed it, producers. Producers are always found at the bottom of the food chain because a lot of organisms use plants as their primary food source.

Animals have to eat, or consume, their food so they are known as consumers. There are a couple of types of consumers.

· If the consumer eats only plants, it is a primary consumer also known as an herbivore.

· If the consumer eats meat, it is a secondary consumer also known as a carnivore.

· A consumer that eats a secondary consumer is a tertiary consumer.

· A consumer that eats anything is known as an omnivore.

· A consumer that eats things that are dead are scavengers, such as vultures.

You may think that humans are at the end of the food chain because nothing (except the occasional shark) eats people. The truth is that even we get used up for energy, but luckily not until we are already dead. Decomposers are organisms that decompose or rot away things that have died. Mushrooms, mold and bacteria are all examples of decomposers. We are lucky to have decomposers in the world. Without them, the woods would be filled with leaves and branches because they would never rot. The smell associated with rot comes from the decomposers. When you smell your stinky gym socks, the smell comes from chemicals released by decomposers munching on some of the energy contained in sweat and skin cells from your feet. Phew!!!!!

A typical food chain would look something like this……..

Producer > Primary Consumer > Secondary Consumer > Decomposer

A couple of useful terms to know for the food chain part of the test is mammal and invertebrate. A mammal is typically, but not always, a furry animal that gives birth to live young. They always produce milk for their young. An invertebrate is any animal that does not have a backbone. Anything that has a skeleton has a backbone and is called a vertebrate. Animals such as jellyfish, slugs and insects do not have skeletons, so they are invertebrates.

An energy pyramid shows how energy moves through a food chain. Only 10% of the energy that an organism collects during its lifetime is passed on in the food chain. The rest (90%) is lost as heat. If such small amounts are passed on, things at the top of the food chain have to eat a lot of things below it. Therefore there are always many more “prey” than “predators”.

Hope this study guide helps!!!! Email me with any questions. I will post this on my web site in case you forget to bring it home!!!