Grade 9 Cycles & Sustainability worksheet
from Gradelings · Name: ______________________
How to explain it
- The Sun’s energy flows through ecosystems, while carbon, water and nitrogen cycle again and again.
- Producers make food, consumers eat, and decomposers return nutrients to the soil.
- Changes such as fewer salmon or more pine beetles ripple through a food web.
Example: Mushrooms are breaking down a fallen log. Producer, consumer or decomposer? They feed on dead matter. They return nutrients to the soil. Answer: decomposer
Question 1
How does the Sun's energy reach and warm Earth's surface?
- as radiation that passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by land and oceans
- through the ocean currents only
- as sound waves
- by conduction through space
as radiation that passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by land and oceans
Hint: Solar radiation drives weather, ocean currents and photosynthesis.
Question 2
What is biodiversity?
- The variety of living things in an ecosystem
- The size of a lake
- The amount of rainfall
- The number of trees only
The variety of living things in an ecosystem
Hint: A greater variety makes an ecosystem more resilient.
Question 3
What is a food web?
- A map of rivers
- A list of plants
- Many food chains in an ecosystem that connect with each other
- A spider's home only
Many food chains in an ecosystem that connect with each other
Hint: Most organisms eat or are eaten by more than one kind of organism, so the chains link into a web.
Question 4
What is a population in ecology?
- Only the predators in an area
- Only the plants in an area
- All the members of one species living in an area
- All the species in an area
All the members of one species living in an area
Hint: A community is made up of several populations.
Question 5
What does a producer do in a food chain?
- Hunts in packs
- Eats other animals
- Makes its own food, usually by photosynthesis
- Breaks down dead things
Makes its own food, usually by photosynthesis
Hint: Plants and algae are producers and form the base of food chains.
Question 6
Why are there fewer organisms at each higher level of a food pyramid?
- Predators are lazy.
- Plants eat animals.
- The Sun gets weaker.
- Only about 10% of the energy passes to the next level.
Only about 10% of the energy passes to the next level.
Hint: Most energy is used or lost as heat at each level.
Question 7
What is a community in ecology?
- All the populations of different species living and interacting in an area
- The non-living parts of an area
- Only the largest animals
- A single family of animals
All the populations of different species living and interacting in an area
Hint: A community includes plants, animals, fungi and microbes in the same place.
Question 8
Producer, consumer or decomposer? Sort each organism.
Sort into: 🌱 Producer · 🦌 Consumer · 🍄 Decomposer
- 🐋orca
- 🌿kelp
- 🦌black-tailed deer
- 🌲Douglas fir tree
- 🍄mushrooms breaking down a fallen log
- 🦠soil bacteria
🌱 Producer: kelp, Douglas fir tree · 🦌 Consumer: orca, black-tailed deer · 🍄 Decomposer: mushrooms breaking down a fallen log, soil bacteria
Hint: Producers make their own food. Consumers eat other organisms. Decomposers break down dead matter.
Question 9
In the nitrogen cycle, what do bacteria in the soil do?
- Remove all nitrogen
- Change nitrogen into forms that plants can use
- Make oxygen from nitrogen
- Turn nitrogen into carbon
Change nitrogen into forms that plants can use
Hint: Nitrogen-fixing bacteria help plants get nitrogen they need to build proteins.
Question 10
Which of these is a biotic factor in an ecosystem?
- soil minerals
- a mushroom
- rainfall
- temperature
a mushroom
Hint: Biotic factors are living (or once living) parts of an ecosystem.
Answer key
- 1. as radiation that passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by land and oceans
- 2. The variety of living things in an ecosystem
- 3. Many food chains in an ecosystem that connect with each other
- 4. All the members of one species living in an area
- 5. Makes its own food, usually by photosynthesis
- 6. Only about 10% of the energy passes to the next level.
- 7. All the populations of different species living and interacting in an area
- 8. 🌱 Producer: kelp, Douglas fir tree · 🦌 Consumer: orca, black-tailed deer · 🍄 Decomposer: mushrooms breaking down a fallen log, soil bacteria
- 9. Change nitrogen into forms that plants can use
- 10. a mushroom
Want more than 10 questions?
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