Habitat fact sheet | Field of Mars EEC

What is a habitat?

A habitat is the place where a living thing lives and meets its needs. It can provide food, water, air, shelter, protection, space to grow and places to breed. Plants, animals, fungi and other organisms all have habitats.

One area of bushland can contain many smaller habitats. At Field of Mars Reserve, a tree hollow, a patch of leaf litter, a shrub, a fallen log, a rock crevice, a damp creek edge and a pond can each be a habitat for different living things.

This overview introduces habitats and habitat diversity. Use it with the specific habitat fact sheets to explore tree, shrub, ground cover, leaf litter, rock and log, and water habitats in more detail.

A habitat is not the same as a whole ecosystem. A habitat is a specific place where an organism lives. An ecosystem is broader because it includes living things and non-living features interacting together. An environment is the wider surroundings and conditions that can include many habitats and ecosystems.

A bushland habitat can include trees, shrubs, ground cover, leaf litter, logs, rocks, water and many living things.

A black jezebel butterfly rests in bushland habitat.

What living and non-living features make up habitats?

Habitats are made up of living and non-living features. Living features can include trees, shrubs, grasses, ferns, animals, fungi, bacteria, algae, roots, flowers, seeds and decomposers. These living things may provide food, shelter, shade, nesting places or material that breaks down into soil.

Non-living features can include rocks, soil, water, sunlight, shade, air, temperature, moisture and spaces between leaves, bark, stones or logs. These features help create microhabitats, which are small habitat places within a larger area.

Bushland can contain many smaller habitats, including trees, grasses, fallen leaves, sticks and logs.

What types of habitats are found in bushland?

Bushland contains many habitat types close together. Tree habitats can include branches, leaves, flowers, bark and hollows. Shrub habitats provide flowers, dense stems and shelter between the tree canopy and the ground. Ground cover habitats include grasses, ferns, herbs and low plants.

Other bushland habitats include leaf litter, fallen logs, rocks, soil, creeks, ponds and damp places. Each habitat has different conditions, so different living things can survive there. Students can observe these habitats safely by staying on tracks, looking closely and leaving plants, animals, rocks, logs and leaf litter in place.

River red gums and fallen wood create habitat beside a river.

Sandy soil, low shrubs and small burrows can form habitat in dry environments.

Streams and pools provide water habitats for plants and animals.

Rocks can create warm, sheltered microhabitats for small animals and plants.

What plants and animals live in different habitats?

Different habitats suit different plants and animals. Trees may provide homes for possums, parrots, beetles, spiders and cicadas. Shrubs can support honeyeaters, butterflies, native bees, spiders and small birds. Ground cover plants can shelter skinks, insects and small mammals.

Leaf litter, logs and soil are important for decomposers such as fungi, worms, termites, slaters and many tiny invertebrates. Water habitats can support frogs, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, aquatic plants, turtles, ducks and other waterbirds.

Flowering banksias provide nectar for birds, mammals and invertebrates.

How do animals use habitats?

Animals use habitats to find food, shelter and breeding places. Birds may feed on nectar, insects, seeds or fruit. Lizards may bask on warm rocks, hide in leaf litter or shelter under logs. Frogs may lay eggs in water and shelter in damp vegetation nearby.

Habitats also help animals avoid predators and harsh weather. Dense shrubs can hide small birds, hollows can shelter possums and parrots, leaf litter can protect small invertebrates, and rocks or logs can create cool, moist hiding places during hot or dry conditions.

Eastern grey kangaroos use grassy areas for feeding and nearby vegetation for shelter.

Why is habitat diversity important?

Habitat diversity means there are many different habitat types in one area. A bushland area with trees, shrubs, ground cover, rocks, logs, leaf litter and water can support more living things than an area with only one habitat type.

Different habitats support different parts of food webs. Plants are producers that make food using sunlight. Animals are consumers that eat plants, fungi or other animals. Decomposers break down dead leaves, wood and other material, returning nutrients to the soil so new plants can grow.

Different environments can contain many habitat types, including trees, shrubs, ground cover, rocks, water and leaf litter.

How can you help protect habitats?

You can help protect habitats by staying on tracks, leaving rocks, logs, bark, leaf litter, flowers and nests in place, and observing animals without touching or collecting them. Take photos, make drawings and record observations instead of removing living things from their habitat.

At home or school, you can plant local native species where suitable, keep waterways clean, reduce litter, avoid trampling small plants, keep cats contained and keep dogs on leads near bushland. Small actions help protect the places where living things feed, shelter, breed and grow.

Staying on marked tracks helps protect fragile plants, leaf litter, soil and small habitats.

Explore habitat fact sheets

Field of Mars EEC habitat fact sheets explore smaller habitat types found in bushland, school grounds and local environments. Each page looks at the living and non-living features of a habitat, the plants and animals that live there, and how the habitat provides food, shelter and breeding places.

Explore tree habitats, shrub habitats, ground cover habitats, leaf litter habitats, rock and log habitats, and water habitats to compare how different places support different living things.

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