Ecosystems And Food Webs Packet

Ecosystems and Food Webs Packet

Name ______Period ______

This entire packet is due on ______

Day 1 – take discussion notes

An environment that provides the things that an organism needs to survive is called a habitat. What three things does an organism need from its habitat? 1- 2- 3- An organism interacts with both living and non-living things in its habitat. These are factors. Biotic Factor: ______such as ______Abiotic Factor: ______such as ______Give 2 examples of biotic and abiotic factors for deer living on Mount Ben Lomond B ______B ______A ______A ______

Define the following levels of environmental organization. Organism:______Population: ______Community: ______Ecosystem: ______Ecology: ______

Draw the environment “bullseye” here and label the levels of organization

What is the difference between a food web and a food chain? ______Day 1 – create a food web made of several food chains with decomposers.

 Color, cut and paste organisms (from the ½ page supplied) below to create a food web.  Include the original energy source, the sun.  Draw arrows that show the direction of biological energy flow.  Label each drawing as abiotic, producer, consumer, or decomposer. (Hint: energy transfer ends with decomposers, but they do return nutrients, such as nitrogen, back to the soil.)

Day 2: In Dr. Art’s Guide to Science, Read pages 146 through 153. Recreate the biological energy pyramid from page 153 below.

Why is the bottom part of the triangle so much bigger than the top two levels of the pyramid? ______

Why are decomposers shown throughout the pyramid from top to bottom? ______

From what you know about root words, what do you think an autotroph is? ______From what you know about root words, what do you think a heterotroph is? ______

Define these organism labels: Herbivore______Carnivore ______Omnivore ______

What is the name of the reaction that is the chemical opposite of photosynthesis, where sugar and oxygen are “burned” to create energy for animals? ______Day 2 The Honeybee Connection Page 3 In nature, each organism depends upon other organisms for survival. Look at the food web below. On the arrows, write what the honeybee provides for each organism.

What does the flower provide for the bee? ______If this were a food web showing transfer of biological energy, which one of the arrows should be reversed? ______(Draw it with a dotted line above) What would happen to the population of honeybees if all of the flowers were killed by frost? ______What would happen to the spiders if all of the honeybees were killed by a lack of food (pollen)? ______What do you think are some “limiting factors” for the honeybee population? ______What other species can you identify that are also affected by honeybees? ______Where does a honeybee get the energy it needs to fly, find flowers, reproduce, make honey, etc? ______If ALL insects were removed from a food web like this one, which species would probably die? ______Which could rely on other members of the food web besides insects, and would probably survive? ______

Day 2: Humans are often responsible for destroying a species. Imagine a situation like this. An exotic flying ant from South America is attacking orange trees in California and Florida. The citrus growers buy a new insecticide to kill the ants. All citrus trees are sprayed. All of the ants die, but all honeybees and bumblebees in California and Florida are also killed. Such bees are responsible for pollinating orange trees. If bees could NOT be imported from other areas, what would the result be for the citrus crop and thus for people? Try to think of five direct or indirect results. 1. ______2. ______3. ______4. ______5. ______This scenario is not so far fetched. A farmer in Northern Utah is contemplating filing a lawsuit against other landowners and the Weber Mosquito Abatement District for spraying insecticide on his fields of alfalfa cutter bees and killing them. See last week’s Standard Examiner for more details.

Do you think it is possible to change one member of a food web without also affecting other organisms in the same food web? Explain. ______

Do you think that use of insecticides in your yard is a good idea? ______

Are there any alternative ways of getting rid of unwanted, harmful insects? ______

Why do you think that most consumers have many sources of food? ______

Extra Credit – 10 points One of the things that an organism needs from its environment is shelter. Choose one of the following animals and find out what kind of shelter it builds: trapdoor spider, mud dauber wasp, prairie dog, cliff swallow, termite. On a separate paper, draw a picture of the animal’s shelter and make a list of materials that the organism uses to create its shelter. Also include a short narrative about what would happen if the materials that an animal usually uses to build its shelter were not available.

Day 3 Biomes Use resources in the classroom (except the teacher’s brain) to find out the definition of a biome. Write your definition here: ______Using the map provided below, create a legend key of color symbols and color the map of Utah biomes below. What surprised you about this map? ______