Ecosystems — Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Ecosystems

An ecosystem is a community of living and nonliving things that interact in a particular place. Living parts of an ecosystem include plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms. Nonliving parts include sunlight, water, air, soil, temperature, and rocks. Every ecosystem, big or small, depends on these parts working together.

Ecosystems can be tiny — like the area under a single rotting log — or enormous, like an entire ocean or rainforest. Each kind of ecosystem has its own climate, soil, and group of organisms that have adapted to live there. Forests, deserts, grasslands, wetlands, and coral reefs are all examples of ecosystems found on Earth.

Every ecosystem includes producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers, like green plants and algae, use sunlight to make their own food through photosynthesis. Consumers are animals that eat producers or other animals to get energy. Decomposers, like bacteria and fungi, break down dead plants and animals so the nutrients can return to the soil and be reused by new plants.

Energy in an ecosystem flows in patterns called food chains and food webs. A food chain shows how energy moves from one organism to the next. For example, grass grows in a field, a rabbit eats the grass, and a fox eats the rabbit. A food web is a network of many connected food chains and shows how all the organisms in an ecosystem depend on each other.

Ecosystems are delicate and can be affected by changes in the environment. Pollution, deforestation, and climate change can harm the plants and animals that live there. Scientists work to protect ecosystems because they keep our planet healthy by cleaning the air and water, providing food, and supporting biodiversity.

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