Rainforest Populations and Communities

population: all the members of a single type of organism in an ecosystem

Last week, to help with an art project we started with Mary Lou, we researched and sketched plant and animal species that live in the rainforest. After we learned what a population was this week, Miss Payne challenged us to try and sort all of our plant and animal sketches into populations that live in the rainforest.

First, we sorted our sketches into 2 categories: plants and animals. We decided those 2 groups weren't exactly populations, so we tried sorting them into 4 categories: plants, insects, mammals, and birds. Still, we realized that populations are made up of only a single type of organism. Hmmm....

Finally, we sorted our producers into 3 populations: trees, ferns (we're not quite sure if the trees and ferns are all exactly the same species...but we're pretending they are!), and orchids. Below you'll see a populations of skunks, three-toed sloths, tree kangaroos, and leopards.

community: all the living things in an ecosystem

After organizing our plants and animals into populations, we tried to organize them into a community, showing how the energy passed from the producers to the herbivores (three-toed sloths, tree kangaroos, and skunks) and then on to our one carnivore - the leopard!

Orchid population

You'll see here that the energy passed from the orchids to the butterflies, then from the butterflies to the macaws and the chameleon. Come by our room if you'd like to see the WHOLE rainforest community on our window!