COOPERATIVE ACTIVITY 1-1: FOOD CHAINS

(comprehension) Construct a food chain by filling in the blanks below. Use the names of specific organisms (not just "bird" or "plant").

___corn________ producer

____worm_______ primary consumer

____robin__ secondary consumer

__snake_______ tertiary consumer

_bacteria, fungi, mold, etc.____ example of a decomposer or detritus feeder

From the organisms listed in your food chain:

1.

Which are herbivores? __worm______________________

2.

Which are carnivores? ___robin and snake_________

3.

Which perform photosynthesis? __corn____________________

4.

How many different types of consumers are present? _4 (including decomposers______________

5.

Which organism is at the beginning of the food chain? _corn_________________

6.

If the secondary consumers in your food chain died, what would happen to their remains? What would happen to the minerals contained in their bodies? Be specific. Remains would be decomposed and nutrients returned to the soil as the waste produced by decomposers.

7.

On your food chain, circle any organism that could be food for decomposers.

All organisms should be circled.

COOPERATIVE ACTIVITY 1-2: FOOD WEBS

(comprehension) Examine the food web in Figure 1-2 and answer the following questions:

1.

Name one organism that functions as both a primary and secondary consumer? _snails____

2.

Name one organism that functions as both a secondary and tertiary consumers? _crayfish__

3.

If a largemouth bass dies of natural causes, draw an arrow indicating the direction of energy transfer and label the arrow with the letter E (for energy). The arrow should show energy transfer to the decomposers in the web, since the bass died of natural causes.

4.

Draw a box around any organisms responsible for nutrient recycling. The box should be drawn around the decomposer bacteria and scavengers (shown at the bottom of the web.)

5.

How many different types of producers support this web? _3______

6.

If all the great blue herons were removed from the ecosystem, the _crayfish_ population would increase the most. This would, in turn, cause a decrease in the _snail______________ population.

7.

Would the situation described in question #6 cause a large change in the population sizes of the trout and bluegill sunfish? Explain your answer.

If the snail population decreases, this would reduce predation on the copepods. This would provide more copepod food for the trout and bluegill sunfish, facilitating their population increase in turn.

COOPERATIVE ACTIVITY 1-3: LONG VS. SHORT FOOD CHAINS

(comprehension) In reference to Figure 1-4, answer the following question: In an overpopulated country, would it be beneficial to make a shift from eating beef to eating food crops such as wheat or rice? Explain your answer.

More people can be supported by eating grain than meat. The addition of cattle into a food chain will mean that less biomass, less food, and therefore, less energy will be available to the next trophic level. It isnt a coincidence that short food chains, consisting of only two trophic levels (such as rice, corn, potatoes people) support the greatest of the worlds population.

COOPERATIVE ACTIVITY 1-4: TROPHIC PYRAMIDS

(comprehension) 1. Arrange the following into their appropriate levels on a trophic pyramid: herring (a small fish), phytoplankton, rockfish (also named striped bass - a large fish), shrimp, and humans. phytoplankton shrimp herring rockfish humans*

2.

What happens to the energy available as you move through the levels of your pyramid? decreases

3.

Draw an asterisk (*) next to the level of the pyramid that would show the greatest amount of toxic accumulation.

(See asterisk in question 1.)

4. Give three examples of substances that might bioaccumulate in the ecosystem represented by the trophic pyramid you drew. Pesticides, PCBs, radioactive isotopes, heavy metals (lead, mercury, copper, cadmium) 5. Suppose the producer level of your pyramid contains 1,000,000 kcal of energy. How much of this energy will be available to feed your secondary consumers?

10,000 kcal