Objective: Students will learn about different organisms that Puget Sound Food Web Activity live in Puget Sound. They will work together to Hand out a worksheet to each group. Ask students to cut their worksheet into food assemble a food web, web cards and then start arranging the cards into food chains/webs on their desk. compare their designs, The back of the cards provide information to help them make connections between and then use their models different organisms. Give students about 10 minutes to look through all of the cards to explore interactions in and start making connections. You may want to have them pause at this point to the ecosystem. review some relevant vocabulary words (ie. predator, prey, producer, consumer, decomposer, carnivore, herbivore, photosynthesis.) Once they think they have their Teacher Preparation: cards organized, give each group a sheet of larger paper and a glue stick to start Download and print copies pasting their cards onto their poster. As a last step, students can personalize their of this PDF. It is designed webs by drawing in other connections or arrows, categories/groups (predators, sea to be printed two-sided in birds), and other elements that are important for their web (the Sun for energy!) color (or in B&W) on 8 ½ X There is no perfect answer as it depends on how the students explain their work. 11 paper. Print one copy Even scientists are always learning about new connections and relationships in the of the food web cards for ecosystem. every 2-3 students. Follow-Up Gallery Walk and Discussion: Have each group hang their food web diagram up on the wall. Give students a Time Needed: couple minutes to walk around the room looking at all the different webs and have 50 minutes (30 minutes them jot down 1-2 questions or observations about the different webs that they see. food web, 20 minutes for What is the same/ different? What do you notice? What do you like about another gallery walk/discussion) group’s web? Come back together as a group and ask students to share a few of
Materials Needed: their thoughts with the whole group.
For every 2-3 students 1. Why did some groups put a sun at the top when others put a human at the top?
(1 set of Food web Cards, 2. Do the drawn in lines/connections look the same for everyone? 1 larger sheet of paper, 2 3. Did you focus on the predator- prey relationships or the transfer of energy pairs of scissors, 1 glue through the web? Does this change what your web looks like? (Note: Younger stick, 3-4 colored kids tend to focus on who eats who and older students (middle school and up) markers). will start switching over to focusing on transfer of energy through the food web which is more how scientists usually look at these interactions. Introduction/Instructions: Divide students into pairs 4. Ask students to use their Food Web model to answer a couple questions about or threes and spread them ecosystem interactions. out around the classroom. 5. Since we’ve been learning about steelhead, what is one animal in your web that Tell students that they will would directly impact the amount of steelhead in the ecosystem? Indirectly? be learning more 6. Name two that eat for the same food. What happens if the amount of prey about steelhead and other increases or decreases? What if the number of one of the predators increases? animals that live in Puget 7. Phytoplankton relies on photosynthesis (just like land dwelling plants) in order to Sound. Each group will grow. Why is the health and growth of phytoplankton so important for all other work independently to members of the Puget Sound Food Web? build a food web diagram 8. Given what you know about Phytoplankton, how does photosynthesis impact that represents other ocean dwelling animals? (emphasis being that it impacts everything—that interactions in the all species rely on sunlight even if it’s not directly). ecosystem and then will share their work with their 9. How does the energy from zooplankton reach southern resident killer whales classmates. (orcas)? What happens if salmon are remove from your food web/chain? Will orcas still receive the energy from zooplankton?
Conclusion: Ecosystems are complicated places with lots of different species and many varying interactions. When we try to study one organism, like a Steelhead, we have to look at a lot of different animals and investigate many different factors (predator-prey interactions, fluctuating population size, human impacts.) Scientists use complicated models on the computer to investigate food web and ecosystem interactions. (See sample images below. You may way to project these so that students can see samples.)
NGSS:
Performance Expectation: 5-PS3 Energy
5-PS3-1. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
Science and Engineering Disciplinary Core Ideas Crosscutting Concepts Practices Use of models Energy in chemical Energy and matter processes and everyday life
https://www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/5-ps3-energy
Puget Sound Foodweb Puget Sound Foodweb eelgrass insects
phytoplankton zooplankton
crabs
pacific oysters jellyfish market squid
cormorants spiny dogfish
forage fish gadids & greenlings
salmon steelhead harbor seals
bald eagles harbor porpoises humans
Bigg’s transient Southern Resident killer whales killer whales Puget Sound Foodweb
Zooplankton is made up of Phytoplankton, like land plants, Insects are invertebrates. They Eelgrass is not a seaweed; it is many species of animals (mostly have chlorophyll & need sunlight are part of the base of the food a blooming underwater grass small crustaceans like copepods, to live & grow. Phytoplankton are web. They feed on plants & which spreads by rhizomes or amphipods, crab, shrimp, & krill). highly productive in Puget Sound bacteria & are eaten by many roots. Diatoms & bacteria gather Some are larval (baby) forms of because of its unique patterns species of fishes & birds in on the leaves, providing food for marine animals & others spend of tides, rivers, & winds. They rivers & estuarine environments. many grazing invertebrates & their whole lives as free-floating bloom in spring, summer, & fall, Aquatic or terrestrial insects birds. Its roots stabilize sediment organisms. Many feed on each & provide food for a wide range that are transported into Puget & its leaves shelter small fishes other & become the base for an of organisms including whales, Sound waters provide an like juvenile salmon. Eelgrass is entire food web, from the smallest shrimp, snails, zooplankton & important high-energy food also important spawning habitat; fish to the largest whale. Most fish, jellyfish. source for juvenile salmon & herring in Puget Sound lay their birds & jellyfish eat zooplankton. other pelagic fishes. eggs on its leaves.
Market Squid is a carnivore Crab species are important Jellyfish are not fish; they are invertebrates. They thrive in warm, Pacific Oysters filter plankton that primarily eats zooplankton prey for many fishes (including from the water, straining up (krill, copepods) & small fish salmon) & birds. Larval (baby) nutrient-rich waters & can tolerate low-oxygen environments. Jellyfish to 60 gallons of water a day. like herring. Squid are also crab eat phytoplankton & They depend on their very cannibalistic; they will eat other zooplankton. Adult crabs live congregate into “blooms,” or “smacks,” of many individuals & thick shells to ward off attacks squid. Squid use tentacles to on the seafloor & eat small by crabs or birds who want to catch their prey & a parrot-like crustaceans, clams, & fish. Spiny can consume large amounts of phytoplankton & zooplankton. Few eat them. Humans also love beak to tear food into pieces. dogfish prey on adult crabs, to eat oysters; oyster farming Birds, harbor seals, gadids, & & crabs also sometimes prey animals eat these soft, gelatinous creatures, so they are sometimes is an important industry in the humans like to eat squid. on other crabs. Humans love Pacific Northwest. to eat many crabs especially considered a “dead-end” in the Dungeness crab. food web.
Spiny dogfish are small (< 1.5 m), Cormorants can dive below the Gadids (hake, cod, pollock) & green- Forage fish are small, silvery long-lived (up to 75 years) sharks surface to catch food or look for lings (lingcod) are recreationally fishes that are eaten by almost that are common here. They eat fish, insects, or crustaceans in important. They eat a variety of everything. They are generally a diverse diet including herring, shallow water. Their hooked bill prey, including zooplankton, forage high-lipid prey, & are often some gadids, ratfish, flatfish, octopuses, is a tool for hanging onto prey. fishes, squid, rockfish, sculpins, of the most ecologically important crabs, & salmon. During World They mostly feed on fishes, & some salmon. Adults can also species in marine ecosystems. War II, millions of spiny dogfish like surfperch, forage fishes & cannibalize juveniles. Lingcod are Puget Sound forage fishes include were harvested for their vitamin A juvenile steelhead. They have one of the top predators in Puget Pacific herring, northern anchovy, rich livers. They are popular few predators but may die Sound: they can get very large (> 1 Pacific sand lance, & surf smelt. recreational & commercial food accidentally by getting tangled in m) & live for up to 20 years. Harbor They eat zooplankton, including fish for humans & are also eaten fishing gear. seals, birds, & spiny dogfish prey copepods, crab larvae, & krill. by harbor seals, birds, & lingcod. upon these fish. They are important prey for salmon, birds, & harbor seals.
Harbor Seals are the most Steelhead spend a year/two Salmon are ecologically, eco- Bald Eagles are large, carnivo- common pinnipeds in Puget in rivers, eating insects, before nomically, & culturally significant rous birds that capture prey with Sound. They live here year-round & they travel out to the ocean & eat in Puget Sound. Many populations their large talons. Their distinc- often stay near a favorite haul- zooplankton, small invertebrates, have declined & are struggling to tive white heads are iconic. They out site (a rocky area, dock or other & other fish. They move offshore survive. Salmon feed on terrestrial build the largest nests of any bird surface near the water). Harbor seals once they hit saltwater & travel & aquatic insects, amphipods, & in the world. They eat fish, other primarily feed on fish, like gadids, great distances across the ocean; other crustaceans when they are birds (like cormorants & ducks), forage fish, salmon & squid. They the longest of any salmon. They young. As they grow older, they & land mammals. They feed are eaten by Biggs transient killer feed near the water’s surface, consume marine zooplankton (like heavily on salmon carcasses after whales, may also die as a result so are at high risk of consuming larval crab & krill) & forage fish. the salmon have spawned. Bald of human activities like fishing or floating marine plastics. Many die Salmon are an important food eagles have no predators but they hunting. on their way to the ocean; they are source for killer whales, harbor may die accidentally from human eaten by predators (harbor seals). seals, & humans. activities like hunting or fishing.
Harbor Porpoises are common Humans love to eat seafood. Southern Resident Killer Bigg’s (Transient) Killer Whales in some areas of the Salish Some of their favorites are Whales are toothed whales that are toothed whales that reside in Sea & their abundance may shellfish (clams, mussels, crab, reside off the coast of the NW the North Pacific Ocean. They are be increasing in Puget Sound. oysters) & fin fish (herring, area of the US & Canada. The fierce predators who sometimes They are the smallest cetacean salmon, cod), but they also Southern Resident killer whale hunt in packs. They are seen in recorded in Puget Sound waters eat seaweed, sea salt, & fish population is so small that they Salish Sea waters in the fall & at < 2 m & < 100 kg. Observers eggs. Humans do not have any are listed as endangered. One have increasingly been observed rarely see more than their small predators that live in the ocean. important factor inhibiting their in Puget Sound. They don’t have dorsal fins, as they do not often recovery is a lack of their favorite predators & primarily eat marine leap from the water. Harbor prey; the endangered Chinook mammals, but also eat birds, porpoises primarily eat fishes & salmon. Sometimes they feed on squid, sharks, & other whales. squids. They are eaten by Biggs steelhead & chum salmon. transient killer whales.