Ecosystems

Some beetles break down the remains of dead animals. Some mushrooms break down the remains of dead trees. How do these actions most benefit plants?

• By returning nutrients to the soil

• By releasing oxygen into the air.

• By making space for new animals.

• By decreasing the population of herbivores

• Prey

• Producer

• Decomposer

• Consumer

• Large flowers and sweet fruit

• Sweet fruit and sharp spines

• Sharp spines and waxy stems

• Waxy stems and large flowers

• Fact 1

• Fact 2

• Fact 3

• Fact 4

• Eagle ----- prairie dogs ----- coyotes

• Wildflowers ---- badgers ---- grasshoppers

• Sparrows ---- seeds ---- insects

• Grasses ---- prairie dogs ---- badgers

Many types of plants grow in a forest ecosystem. How do plants affect the air that forest animals breathe?

• Plants use oxygen from the air to make food.

• Plants release pollution into the air.

• Plants release energy from the sun into the air.

• Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air.

Animals and plants use substances that cycle through the environment. Which substance is needed by plants to survive and is released into the atmosphere by animals?

• Oxygen

• Carbon dioxide

• Salt

• Sugar

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• Blue Jay

• Snail

• Water Lily

• Lobster

• The population of predators that eat prairie dogs will decrease.

• The population of plants that prairie dogs eat will decrease.

• The nutrients in the soil will increase

• The number of underground tunnels will increase.