WATCH: Ecosystems

WATCH: Ecosystems

The video clip below describes how ecosystems work. As you watch the video clip, listen for the answers to these questions: 

1. How do land plants generate the energy they need for their metabolic energy? What do they do with excess energy?
2. Where do scavengers in an ecosystem obtain their energy from? How can scavenging be a beneficial strategy for an organism?
3. What is the role of decomposers?
4. What kind of problems can you foresee if every speck of carbon were turned into biomass? Why?
5. Complete this statement: Energy ___________ through an ecosystem, whereas nutrients are ____________.

CK-12 Foundation, Life Science. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

After you have completed this part of the lesson, you can check the associated box on the main course page to mark it as complete