This document provides information about habitats and ecosystems in Georgia. It discusses 5 main regions in Georgia: mountains, piedmont, coastal plain, swamps/marshes, and the Atlantic Ocean. For each region, it describes the non-living characteristics, plants, and animals commonly found there. It also covers habitats, environments, ecosystems, and how changes can affect living things. Key terms like traits, adaptations, reproduce, and survive are defined. Examples are given of physical and behavioral adaptations that help plants and animals live in their environments.
10. Vocabulary Ecosystem: An ecosystem is made up of living and non living things that interact in the same place. An ecosystem is a community of animals, plants and micro-organisms, together with the habitat where they live. Georgia has many different ecosystems, such as the Okefenokee Swamp and a forest ecosystem. In an ecosystem, things interact (when things in the environment have a relationship). Okefenokee Swamp Jekyll Island Beach Cumberland Island
11. What do you see interacting, or relating, in this pond ecosystem? Birds hunt for fish and frogs near the pond’s edge. Water lilies float on the surface of the pond. Frogs often rest on their leaves. Turtles resting on a log. They are faster in water than on land. They eat small fish, worms, and plants. Ladybugs crawl on the plants that live in the shallow water near the pond’s edge. Fish live in the water. They may reach up to eat insects just above the surface.
12. Vocabulary Habitat: A habitat is a specific place inside of the ecosystem where organisms live, such as a home or a shelter, or the general area, such as your neighborhood. An example is fish…they live in the water. A duck lives in the same pond, but it doesn’t live underwater with the fish. It lives on top of the water. Which is larger? A turtle’s habitat or a pond ecosystem?
13. What does a habitat provide… …for you? Your habitat provides you all the things you need to survive. It provides a shelter (house), food (stores/gardens), air, temperature control (air conditioning or heat). …for a living thing? A living thing has a habitat that provides everything it needs to live there and to survive. Which habitat do these living things find all that they need?
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15. What happens to the animals who live in or by flowing streams where the dam has stopped the flow of water?
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18. get more rain and snow than any other part of the state.
19. are warm in the summer and below freezing in winter.
35. You will find deer, bobcats, diamondback rattle snakes, skunks, opossums, raccoons, quail, and songbirds.
36. You will also see woodpeckers, gopher tortoises and gopher frogs.
37. Many crops are grown in this area including peanuts, pecans, peaches, watermelons, and even Vidalia onions.
38. The fall line separates the piedmont from the coastal plain and has many waterfalls located along it.Habitats in Georgia: The Coastal Plain
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40. Georgia's coastal plain is a low flat region of sandy, well drained, gently rolling hills and poorly drained flatlands.
41. Examples in Georgia are mountain bogs, piedmont marshes, and swamps in the coastal plain.
42. Soil is wet and spongy. Lots of water lilies grow there.
43. In marshes, fresh water from rain, streams, and rivers mixes with the salty ocean water, so it is not as salty.
44. A swamp is like a lake, but shallower. A marsh has lots of grasses and reeds instead of trees.
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47. Muddy soil is called “peat”. If you tried to walk through the swamp, your legs would sink deeper and deeper with every step!
48. It is made up of lakes, islands, marshes, and forests.
49. More than 600 kinds of plants live there, such as saw palmettos, cypresses, black gums, and red maples.
50. Prairies are covered with several inches of water and have water lilies, golden club, sedges, and grasses growing on them.
51. You will find sandhill cranes, alligators, ducks, white ibises, egrets, and herons. There are also songbirds, hawks, wild turkeys, black bears, and more than a dozen kinds of frogs.
54. A drought is a long period of time with very little rain. Plants that live in a place where it usually rains may not survive a drought.
55. In deserts, very few animals live there because it is so dry and hot, and there is very little water. The animals that do live there have adaptations to help them survive. When it rains in a desert, plants grow very quickly and make seeds before they die in the dry climate.
56. Fires can help and harm. They can help because a burning tree might fall down, allowing sunlight to come in and make more room for plants to grow. Some plants have adaptations to help them survive where there are a lot of fires. In grassland environments, grasses have many roots and grow back quickly after a fire.
60. All living things have traits. In plants, it might be the size, shape, and color or leaves. In animals, it might be their beaks, the shape of their feet, or color of their body.
77. Vines have an adaptation for growth too. They have stems that wrap around other plants and help them grow up towards the sunlight. A vine is supported by other plants.
78. Roots are used for getting water and nutrients. Some roots are fat and store food. Some roots of desert plants grow deep into the soil and reach water that is far underground. Other desert plants have roots that are along the surface so they can get water quickly.
94. They use their tail and fins to move through the water, like an eagle uses its wings for flying. Tuck your thumb into the palm of your hand Without moving your thumb, try to pick up an object. Now try to write your name. How is the thumb a useful adaptation for humans??
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96. An animal doesn’t need food when hibernating because it stored up enough fat from eating over the other months.
98. They eat less and grow thicker fur because their bodies will get colder.
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100. Gray whales that live near Alaska swim South in the cold winters. They migrate to warm waters near California. Then in spring, they swim North again.
101. Animals do not need to learn how to migrate. They are adaptations and the animals are born knowing how to do this.
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