← Back to the activity

Year 9 Science — Ecosystems and food chains

Separate the living and non-living parts of a habitat, build a food chain, and name the three ways two organisms can live together.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.In the food chain grass → grasshopper → frog → snake, which one is the producer?

    • a) Snake
    • b) Frog
    • c) Grass
    • d) Grasshopper

  2. 2.Food chains in an ecosystem are not really separate. What are they, taken together?

    • a) A food web, because an organism may be eaten by two or more kinds of organism
    • b) A community, because the chains share a habitat
    • c) A population, because the chains hold organisms of the same kind
    • d) A trophic level, because each chain occupies one level

  3. 3.Sort what you would find in a pond or a forest by whether it is living or not.

    Groups: Biotic · Abiotic

    • Soil
    • Sunlight
    • Grass
    • Water
    • Fish

  4. 4.Sort these ecosystems by whether they sit in water or on land.

    Groups: Aquatic ecosystem · Terrestrial ecosystem

    • A river
    • A pond
    • Grassland
    • A forest

  5. 5.In the chain grass → grasshopper → frog → snake, the frogs disappear. What happens to the grasshoppers and the snakes?

    • a) Grasshoppers increase, because nothing is eating them; snakes decrease, because their food has gone
    • b) Both increase, because one fewer animal is competing for space
    • c) Both stay the same, because the grass is unaffected
    • d) Grasshoppers decrease and snakes increase

  6. 6.What is the difference between a population and a community?

    • a) A population is the plants and a community is the animals
    • b) A community is smaller than a population
    • c) A population lives in water and a community on land
    • d) A population is organisms of one kind in a habitat; a community is the different populations sharing it

  7. 7.Sort these animals by what they eat.

    Groups: Herbivore · Carnivore · Omnivore

    • Deer
    • Leopard
    • Hare
    • Mouse
    • Fox
    • Crow

  8. 8.Match each pair of organisms to the kind of relationship they have.

    • Honeybees and flowers
    • An orchid on a tree branch
    • A tick on a dog
    • parasitism
    • mutualism
    • commensalism

Answer key — Year 9 Science — Ecosystems and food chains

  1. 1. c) Grass
  2. 2. a) A food web, because an organism may be eaten by two or more kinds of organism
  3. 3. Fish → Biotic; Grass → Biotic; Soil → Abiotic; Sunlight → Abiotic; Water → Abiotic
  4. 4. A pond → Aquatic ecosystem; A river → Aquatic ecosystem; A forest → Terrestrial ecosystem; Grassland → Terrestrial ecosystem
  5. 5. a) Grasshoppers increase, because nothing is eating them; snakes decrease, because their food has gone
  6. 6. d) A population is organisms of one kind in a habitat; a community is the different populations sharing it
  7. 7. Deer → Herbivore; Hare → Herbivore; Leopard → Carnivore; Crow → Omnivore; Fox → Omnivore; Mouse → Omnivore
  8. 8. Honeybees and flowers → mutualism; An orchid on a tree branch → commensalism; A tick on a dog → parasitism