Module 9 Activity 1 Eaters and Eaten PDF

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BIOS1010 General Biology

Name Heather Hemann

The Eaters and the Eaten Eating is one of life's basics, but various organisms get their energy and building materials in different ways. Understanding some simple nutritional relationships is basic to understanding an ecosystem. This guide will help you get acquainted with these ideas and think further about them. Watch Food Webs and Energy Pyramids by the Amoeba Sisters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oVavgmveyY) before completing this worksheet.

FOOD CHAIN : Think of organisms linked according to their food preferences. The food chain simply follows energy and materials from producer to consumer to consumer to the "top," the last consumer. The number of steps varies. The figure to the left shows a food chain with a shark at the top. The shark is at level six in the food chain. Create a food chain including an elephant below.

Is the elephant at a higher or lower place in the food chain than the shark? Why do you think this is true? I think it would be lower because Elephants don’t have many predators.

Is your elephant food chain longer or shorter than the shark food chain? Why do you think this is true? Lower because Elephants are herbivores that eat grass trees and shrubs.

List 5 foods you eat and state what level in the food chain you are at when you each them. 1. Lettuce – 2nd level 2. Hamburger- 3rd Level 3.Taco Salad- 4th Level 4. Cucumber- 2nd Level 5. Chicken- 3rd level

Name a food people eat that would make them a tertiary consumer. Hawk

Suggest a food chain that might occur in your backyard. Primary Consumers

FOOD WEB: Most organism do not just eat one kind of food and are not eaten by only one kind of organisms. Food webs give a much more acturate representation of trophic interactions. Above is a food web of the Chesapeake Bay  How many producers, originators of food chains, are represented? 3  Which are the top carnivores, those not eaten by anyone else? Osprey, and Bald Eagle

 It might be hard to believe that nothing eats these top carnivores. We might need to move beyond the bay to find such a carnivore. Suggest something that might eat one of the top

carnivores in the food web above. Lions because they eat other animals but most often animals like raccoons will pray on the eggs of a bald eagle.  How many organisms are both eaters and eaten? List several below. 5 Primary Producer, Primary Consumer, Secondary Consumer, Tertiary Consumer, Quaternary consumer.  Should all producers have at least one consumer? Why? Yes because otherwise we wouldn’t be producers.  Should all consumers have more than one food source? Why? Yes we need multiple food sources for nutrition.  Be a little more complete about the feeding going on in your backyard. There is probably more than one food chain present. Thinking of the food chain you described above, now think of a different primary or secondary or tertiary consumer: Humans are tertiary consumers because we eat both plants and animals. 

In that same setting, predict a food chain that starts with a different producer but ends with the same consumer: Having a garden with vegetables would have the sun as the producer and the species that eat them are the consumers.

FOOD PYRAMID: We use a food pyramid to represent the actual amount of energy at each level in a food chain. Figure 20.5 in your book gives an example of the energy at each level in an ecosystem in Florida. 

Why must the base of an actual pyramidal structure be wide? Because it is at the bottom of the pyramid which is considered the largest and strongest.

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Why must the food (energy) pyramid have a wide base? Energy is the most important source for organisms. Without energy there would not be a food chain.

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Let's suppose that you own twenty acres of land in the Midwest. You decide to grow corn and soybeans to feed to cattle, which you will then eat. (Ignore nutritional requirements and taste in this scenario.) As your family grows, which will sustain a larger family -- the diet of hamburger or a diet of corn and soybeans?

Explain: The diet from the corn and soybeans because it will be able to produce at a quicker rate than the meat because it takes longer for the cows to grow to produce food....