Ecosystem

Today you'll
learn about:
Ecosystem
Deserts
Interaction in sonoran
desert
Non living things in
desert
The desert ecosystem
Different ecosystem
 Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a geographic area where living organisms,
such as plants and animals, interact with each other and
their non-living environment, such as weather and
landscape .

Ecosystems are made up of biotic (living) and abiotic

(nonliving) components:

?? Biotic components: Living organisms, such as plants,

animals, and other organisms

Abiotic components: Nonliving components, such as rocks,

temperature, humidity, air, water, light, soil, minerals, and
nutrients
A desert in Arizona
Deserts are not easy places for animals and plants to live. Deserts do
not get much rainfall, so the organisms that live there must have
adaptations that help them to survive with little water.

The tall plants in the photograph are saguaro cacti. They grow very
slowly, and those in the photograph may be more than 100 years old.
Their roots spread out widely just underneath the soil, ready to absorb
any rain that falls.

Many animals live among the cacti and other desert plants. Gila
woodpeckers make holes in the cacti, to make their nests. Other birds
also visit these holes.
 In the Sonoran Desert, it usually rains heavily at least
once a year. When the rains come, the desert is
transformed. Many plants quickly produce flowers. Insects
feed on the nectar and pollen in the flowers, helping the
plants to reproduce by pollinating them. At night, bats
feed on nectar from the flowers of agave plants

Seeds fall to the ground and are collected by ants, to take

into their nests to provide a food store. Many months or
years later, some of the uneaten seeds may germinate to
produce new plants
 Components of an Ecosystem
Biotic Factors Abiotic Factors
The living organisms in The nonliving, physical, and chemical
an ecosystem component in an ecosystem

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 Interactions in the Sonoran Desert
You may have realised that all the different animals and plants depend on each other. They interact
with each other. The actions of one organism affect.

It is not only other organisms that affect the plants and animals in the Arizona desert. There are
also interactions between the organisms and the non-living parts of their environment.

• Light: The bright sunlight helps the plants to photosynthesise, producing food that other
organisms can eat.

• Temperature: The temperature is often very high during the day, but much lower at night. Some
animals are nocturnal, which helps them to avoid overheating or drying out. It is cooler underneath
the soil, so some animals – such as the tarantula in the picture – dig burrows for shelter during the
day.

• Soil: Rocks and soil provide minerals for the plants to grow, as well as building material for
ground-nesting birds.

• Water: All organisms need water to keep their cells alive. Rain, when it comes, allows them to
become more active and to reproduce.

• Air: The desert air provides carbon dioxide for the plants to use in photosynthesis, and oxygen for
all the organisms to use in respiration.
 The desert ecosystem
Everything in the desert interacts with everything else. All of these interactions make
up the desert ecosystem. An ecosystem is a network of interactions between all the
living organisms and the non-living things around them.

Some of the interactions in an ecosystem involve food webs. Remember that plants
ed-tailed hawk are the producers in a food web. They use energy in sunlight to make
food. As animals eat the desert plants and each other, the energy is passed through the
desert food web

Food webs are a very important part of the interactions in an ecosystem, but they are
not the only interactions. For example, plants may provide places for some of the
animals to make nests. Plant roots help to hold the soil together, so that it does not
wash away when it rains. Animals help plants to reproduce by pollinating their flowers
or spreading their seeds.
 The interactions in an ecosystem are usually very complicated. The study of
ecosystems is called ecology. No ecologist would ever claim to have
discovered all of the different interactions in an ecosystem. There is always
something new to find out, even in an ecosystem that scientists have been
studying for a long time.

Habitats in a desert ecosystem

The place where an organism naturally lives is called its habitat. There are
many different places to live in a desert. • The habitat of a saguaro cactus is
the open desert.

• The habitat of a Gila woodpecker is a saguaro cactus (where it makes its

nest) and the air and ground in the open desert (where it collects food).

• The habitat of a desert ant is underneath the rocks and soil and on the soil
surface. • Termites live at the base of the saguaro stems. • Sap beetles live
inside the saguaro flowers. • Kangaroo rats live in burrows and come out to
look for food at night.
 Different ecosystems
The ecosystem in the Arizona Desert is just one of many different ecosystems
on Earth. Here are three more examples of ecosystems: mangrove forests, sea ice
in the Arctic Ocean, and a rice paddy.

Mangrove forest
• Mangroves are trees that can grow with their roots in sea water. They
form forests along the coasts of many tropical countries • Young fish live
among the mangrove roots, safe from larger fish that might eat them. Mud
skippers climb out onto the mud when the tide is out, feeding on whatever
they can find. • As the mangrove leaves fall onto the mud, they are
decomposed by bacteria. Prawns and crabs eat the partly decomposed
leaves. • Crab-eating macaques, a type of monkey, climb through the trees
and catch crabs on the tree roots and mud.
Thank you