Habitats and Ecosystems — Answer Key
Part A: Fill in the Blank
Write the missing word or number on each line.
1. A food chain shows how energy moves from one living thing to another.
Each arrow in a food chain points the same direction the energy travels, from one living thing to the next. Energy is what fills that blank because the chain is showing how it is passed along.
2. Green plants that make their own food are called producers.
Plants use sunlight, water, and air to make their own food through photosynthesis, and that ability to produce food is what makes them producers.
3. Animals that eat other living things are called consumers.
Unlike plants, these living things cannot make food from sunlight, so they have to eat other organisms to get energy. That is the meaning of consumers.
4. Mushrooms and bacteria that break down dead things are called decomposers.
Mushrooms and bacteria break apart dead plants and animals and turn them back into nutrients in the soil. Living things that do this important recycling job are decomposers.
5. Every food chain begins with energy from the sun.
All the energy in a food chain originally comes from one place: the sun. Producers capture sunlight, and the energy then moves to every other animal in the chain.
6. A rabbit is a herbivore because it eats only plants.
Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores. A rabbit nibbling clover and grass fits that description perfectly.
7. A lion is a carnivore because it eats other animals.
Carnivores are meat eaters that survive by hunting other animals. A lion stalking zebras and wildebeest is a clear example.
8. An animal that eats both plants and animals is called an omnivore.
Bears, raccoons, and people all eat both plant foods and meat. The word for an animal with that mixed diet is omnivore.
9. When one part of a food chain is removed, the whole chain is affected.
If even one link in a food chain is removed, every other living thing connected to it loses or gains something, which is why the whole chain is affected.
Part B: Matching
Match each item on the left to the correct answer on the right.
1. Match each item to its correct answer.
camel
→ desert
tundra
penguin
→ tundra
grassland
parrot
→ forest
desert
bison
→ grassland
forest
Each animal belongs to the habitat it is built for: camels store water for the dry desert, penguins waddle on the icy tundra, parrots nest in tropical forests, and bison graze on wide open grasslands.