Earth's Support Life 4Quiz PDF

What do living things need to survive? Earth is covered in living things. Plants, animals, and other organisms live in oceans, rivers, forests, and any other place that you can think of. What do these organisms need to survive? Animals like the poison dart frog in the picture need to breathe air, d...

What do living things need to survive? Earth is covered in living things. Plants, animals, and other organisms live in oceans, rivers, forests, and any other place that you can think of. What do these organisms need to survive? Animals like the poison dart frog in the picture need to breathe air, drink water, and eat food. They need a place to live where they have protection from things that can harm them and where they can dispose of wastes. What do plants need to stay alive? Plants like the bromeliad in the picture need many of the same basic things that animals do. The basic necessities of life are air, water, a source of energy, and a habitat to live in. How do Earth and the sun interact to support life on Earth? The sun is a star, so it radiates energy out into space. Some of this energy reaches Earth's surface. Plants on Earth use the sun's energy to make food through the process of photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide and water to oxygen and glucose. Glucose is a sugar that can be stored in cells. When plants need energy, they break down and use the glucose they have stored. Plant life on Earth forms the foundation of many food chains. Some animals eat plants to gain energy. Other animals eat these animals. In this way, energy from the sun is passed from plants to other organisms. - What is the food that is produced during photosynthesis? carbon dioxide + water solar energy → oxygen + glucose A) Earth's Rotation Distributes Solar Energy: Earth rotates continuously on its axis, spinning around completely every 24 hours. Earth's rotation allows most regions of Earth to receive sunlight regularly. Regular sunlight allows plants to grow in almost all places on Earth. Earth's rotation also protects areas on Earth from temperature extremes. Imagine how hot it would be if your town always faced the sun. And imagine how cold it would be if your town never faced the sun! B) Earth Has a Unique Temperature Range: Earth's distance from the sun also protects it from temperature extremes. If Earth were closer to the sun, it might be like Venus. Venus has extremely high temperatures because it is closer to the sun, and because it has a very thick atmosphere. These factors make it is too hot to support life. If Earth were farther away from the sun, it might be like Mars. Mars has extremely low temperatures, so it is too cold to support life as we know it. Earth has an average temperature of 15° C (59° F). Regions of Earth range from freezing temperatures below 0° C (32° F) to hot temperatures above 38° C (100° F). This temperature range allows life to survive in even the coldest and hottest places on Earth. What is unique about Earth's water? When you look at a picture of Earth, you see lots and lots of water. How did Earth get so much water? Early Earth formed from molten materials, such as iron, nickel, and silica. These materials separated into layers and began to cool. As Earth cooled, it released steam and other gases into the air around its surface. The steam formed clouds, and water fell to Earth as rain. This was the beginning of Earth's oceans. Some of Earth's water also came from space. Icy comets and meteors impacted Earth and added water to Earth's oceans. A) Only Earth Has Liquid Water to Support Life: Earth is unique in the solar system because it contains water in three states: solid, liquid, and gas. Most of Earth's water is in liquid form. In fact, Earth is the only known planet with a large supply of liquid water on its surface. About 71% of Earth's surface is now covered with water. Liquid water is essential to life because cells need liquid water in order to perform life processes. Water remains a liquid on Earth because surface temperatures generally stay above the freezing point of water. Temperatures also stay far below water's boiling point. How does Earth's atmosphere support life? Take a deep breath. The air you are breathing is part of Earth's atmosphere. An atmosphere is a mixture of gases that surround a planet, moon, or other space object. Some space objects have atmospheres, and some do not. It often depends on the object's gravity. Earth and Venus have atmospheres because their gravity is strong enough to hold gases in place. Mercury and the Moon each have weaker gravity, so they do not have atmospheres. A) Gases Fuel Life Processes: Earth's atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. It also has traces of other gases like carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide and oxygen support most forms of life. Plants and some single-celled organisms use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. Plants, animals, and most other organisms use oxygen to perform cell processes. Anaerobic bacteria are some forms of life that do not need oxygen to survive. Earth's atmosphere has not always contained nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. It was originally just hydrogen and helium. These gases were too light for Earth's gravity to hold, so they escaped into space. Volcanoes released water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ammonia into Earth's early atmosphere. Solar energy broke ammonia apart, adding nitrogen and hydrogen to the atmosphere. Hydrogen escaped into space, but the nitrogen stayed in the atmosphere. Bacteria used carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis, which released oxygen into the atmosphere. B) Gases Insulate Earth: The gases in Earth's atmosphere support life in other ways. As radiation from the sun reaches Earth's atmosphere, some of it is reflected back into space. Some is absorbed by water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases in the atmosphere. Some solar radiation passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by Earth's surface. Radiation from Earth's surface then moves into the atmosphere. This energy is absorbed and re-radiated by atmospheric gases, through a process called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect keeps Earth warmer than it would be if Earth had no atmosphere.