When an Ecosystem Is Working Well, the Organisms Are Part of a Stable Food Web

Name: ______Class: ______

Disaster Strikes The Quadrat!!!

Background:

When an ecosystem is working well, the organisms are part of a stable food web, and the right biotic and abiotic elements are available to keep them alive. But ecosystems are fragile. Even minor human interactions and changes in nature can hurt or destroy an ecosystem.

Students have invaded your ecosystem! Due to a change in the rules of the school, students have been allowed to eat anywhere they want on nutrition breaks. All of the kids have been eating their lunches in our ecosystem behind the soccer field. They have been stamping down, sitting down on, and ripping out the grasses and other plants. They have wrecked all of the grasses and plants. Somehow, this change caused the entire ecosystem to be destroyed.

1. Pick 10 biotic elements and 6 abiotic elements from your quadrat and put them in a list. You can include biotic elements that you did not necessarily see in your quadrat, but that you think might sometimes pass through your quadrat. For this project, humans are not allowed as a biotic element. 2. Pick 5 of the biotic elements. For each biotic element, describe the abiotic elements it depends on to survive and how it uses them. 3. Create a food web of the 10 biotic elements. 4. Describe how the entire ecosystem could be destroyed just by students eating in the ecosystem and killing all the grasses and plants. 5. Make a representation of the secondary succession that could happen in this area from the day after the ecosystem was destroyed to 200 years in the future. Include sections for the return of the pioneer species, intermediate species, the creation of a climax community, and the return of organisms such as insects and animals. Possible Representations: a. poster or series of pictures with descriptions for each section b. bound book/duotang of pictures/drawings with descriptions for each section c. diorama with different sections for each part, including descriptions d. some other amazingly creative thing that I cannot think of (but you can!!!) 6. Describe how you would preserve, conserve and restore this ecosystem.

Example Schedule: Period 1 Introduction of the Quadrat Disaster Challenge

Grade 7 Science: Ecosystems Page 1 of 5 Name: ______Class: ______

Make your lists, food web, and describe how the Period 2 3 4 ecosystem was destroyed Create your representation of secondary Period 5 6 7 succession Period 8 Create your “preserve, conserve, restore” plan Biotic Elements Abiotic Elements

Biotic Element How it uses the abiotic elements

Quadrat Disaster! Assessment

Expectation 1 2 3 4 Comments/ Next Steps

1. I showed how the biotic and abiotic elements interacted in the ecosystem

2. I showed how an entire ecosystem could be affected when one element is removed (plants) and the balance is changed.

3. I described how secondary succession could occur in my ecosystem

4. I chose a strategy for protecting an ecosystem and analyzed the benefits of my choice

Grade 7 Science: Ecosystems Page 5 of 5