Rabbit Population by Season GIZMO PDF

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Answer sheet to the rabbit population by season GIZMO...

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Name:

JS

Date:

Thursday, Apr. 29, 2021

Vocabulary: carrying capacity, density-dependent limiting factor, density-independent limiting factor, limiting factor, population, population density Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 1. Suppose you had a pet rabbit. What would the rabbit need to stay alive and healthy? A pet bunny would require the same essentials as any other animal would: food, water and shelter. It should probably be placed in a room where it can be met with its ideal temperatures. 2. A female rabbit can give birth to over 40 baby rabbits a year. Suppose all of her offspring survived and reproduced, all of their offspring survived and reproduced, and so on. If that happened, in only eight years the mass of rabbits would exceed the mass of Earth! So, why aren’t we overrun with rabbits? What keeps the rabbit population in check? Limiting factors and the food chain keeps us from being overrun by rabbits. Due to the fact that there’s only a reserved amount of food, shelter, water, and areas, the rabbits won’t always have what they need, as there’d never be enough resources. Not to mention that rabbits get eaten by foxes, therefore that’s another factor that keeps their population in check. Gizmo Warm-up A population is a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area. The size of a population is determined by many factors. In the Rabbit Population by Season Gizmo, you will see how different factors influence how a rabbit population grows and changes. 1. Select the BAR CHART tab. What is the size of the initial rabbit population? Around 40 rabbits is the initial population. 2. Select the TABLE tab. Click Play ( ), and allow the simulation to run for one year. A. In which season did the rabbit population increase the most? The rabbit population increased the most throughout the spring, due to the nice temperatures, therefore naturally producing proper vegetation for the rabbits to consume, and a thrivable habitat for them to thrive in. B. In which season did the rabbit population increase the least? The rabbit population decreased in the winter because of the snow and low temperatures, limiting their chances of finding necessary supplies like food and water. Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved

Activity A: Carrying capacity

Get the Gizmo ready: ● Click Reset (

).

Question: What determines how large a population can grow? 1. Think about it: A limiting factor is any factor that controls the growth of a population. What do you think are some of the limiting factors for the rabbit population? Not only rabbits, but many other animals are restricted by finding necessary supplies like food and water in specific seasons (mostly the winter). There are also predators larger and faster after them, making them an easy target in some situations. There would also be competition within their species, along with diseases and population density problems in their habitats. 2. Run Gizmo: Select the DESCRIPTION tab. Set the Simulation speed to Fast. Select the GRAPH tab. Click Play, and allow the simulation to run for at least 10 years. (Note: You can use the zoom controls on the right to see the whole graph.) A. Describe how the rabbit population changed over the course of 10 years. For the first four years, the population seemed to increase in size, but for the next six years it stayed mostly the same between increasing in the summer/spring and decreasing in the winter/fall. B. What pattern did you see repeated every year? The population increased in spring and decreased in the winter. C. How could you explain this pattern? Due to spring’s influence on the climate, population growth is more common due to more resources that are easily accessible. 3. Analyze: The carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support. All environments have carrying capacities. A. What is this environment’s approximate carrying capacity for rabbits? (Note: Average the summer and winter carrying capacities.) This environment's approximate carrying capacity for rabbits would be around 350-450. B. When did the rabbit population reach carrying capacity? Explain how you know. It reached its carrying capacity at around the fourth year, because after that, the rabbit population remained pretty much the exact same.

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Activity B: Density-dependent limiting factors

Get the Gizmo ready: ● Click Reset. ● On the SIMULATION pane, make sure Ample is selected for the amount of LAND available.

Introduction: Population density is the number of individuals in a population per unit of area. Some limiting factors only affect a population when its density reaches a certain level. These limiting factors are known as density-dependent limiting factors. Question: How does a density-dependent limiting factor affect carrying capacity? 1. Think about it: What do you think some density-dependent limiting factors might be? Competition between other rabbits, sickly rabbits that spread diseases within their community, available space, and predation from larger animals could all be density-dependant limiting factors. 2. Predict: Suppose a shopping mall is built near a rabbit warren, leaving less land available for rabbits. How will this affect the environment’s carrying capacity? The carrying capacity should decrease, as the rabbits would lose their space. 3. Experiment: Use the Gizmo to find the carrying capacity with Ample, Moderate, and Little land. List the carrying capacities below. Ample:

400

Moderate:

300

Little:

100

4. Analyze: How did the amount of space available to the rabbits affect how many individuals the environment could support? When the space was increased, the rabbits would have more area to thrive, and less limiting factors. However, once the space decreased, so did the amount of rabbits that the environment could handle, therefore amping the limiting factors higher up the importance scale. 5. Infer: Why do you think limiting a population’s space decreases the carrying capacity? Once there’s less land, there’s also less vital resources (food, water, etc.), which increases the limiting factors.

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Activity C: Density-independent limiting factors

Get the Gizmo ready: ● Click Reset. ● On the SIMULATION pane, select Ample for the amount of LAND available.

Introduction: Not all limiting factors are related to a population’s density. Density-independent limiting factors affect a population regardless of its size and density. Question: How do density-independent limiting factors affect how a population grows? 1. Think about it: What do you think some density-independent limiting factors might be? Natural disasters and unusual weather throughout the year could threaten a population. 2. Gather data: Click Play. Allow the population to reach carrying capacity. Click Pause ( ). Select the GRAPH tab and click the camera ( ) to take a snapshot of the graph. Right click the image and paste the snapshot into the box below. Label the graph “Normal Weather.” Normal Weather

3. Predict: How do you think a period of harsh winters will affect the rabbit population? Due to the harsh conditions and temperatures, I’m going to predict that the rabbit’s population will decrease.

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4. Investigate: Click Reset. Select Harsh winter from the CONDITIONS listed on the SIMULATION pane. Click Play, and observe how the population changes over five years. Paste a snapshot of the graph in the box below. Label the graph “Harsh Winter.” Harsh Winter

A. How does the Harsh Winter graph differ from the Normal Weather graph? The carrying capacity of the environment seems to be slightly lower in the Harsh Winter graph, not to mention the greater incline of the population during the winter season. B. What do you think most likely caused the differences seen in the two graphs? Due to the harsh winter, it becomes more difficult to survive without aid, therefore causing more rabbits to die off. 5. Predict: Rabbits reproduce in the spring. How do you think a period of cold springs will affect the rabbit population? Due to the major die-off in the winter, there could be possibly less rabbits to reproduce in the spring, which would automatically make the specie’s numbers decline.

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6. Investigate: Deselect Harsh winter. Select Cold spring. Click Play, and observe how the population changes over a period of five years. Paste a snapshot of the graph in the box below and label the graph “Cold Spring.” Cold Spring

A. How does the Cold Spring graph differ from the Normal Weather graph? The carrying capacity seems to have slightly increased to about five years, and it has a steadier line than usual. B. What do you think most likely caused the differences seen in the two graphs? I’m going to assume that due to the cold spring, the rabbits perhaps adapted to the cold weather, so when winter hit, they were able to maintain themselves during the season, hence less deaths throughout the four seasons in the Cold Spring graph. 7. Predict: How do you think a period of hot summers will affect the rabbit population? They will most likely thrive in the weather and the easy access to resources. The population will probably increase in the summer, but decrease in the winter due to them maybe getting used to the easy life in the hot summer.

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8. Investigate: Deselect Cold spring. Select Hot summer. Click Play, and observe how the population changes over a period of five years. Paste a snapshot of the graph in the box below. Label the graph “Hot Summer.” Hot Summer

A. How does the Hot Summer graph differ from the Normal Weather graph? You can easily spot the sharp incline in the summer, quickly declining into the winter. Again however, the carrying capacity increased to just after four years. B. What do you think most likely caused the differences seen in the two graphs? I think the strong decline in the winter was due to the rabbit’s inability to adapt to the sudden change between their classic hot summers to the winters. However, once the weather returned to the hot summers, their population increased quickly. 9. Think and discuss: Other than unusual weather, what might be another density-independent limiting factor that could affect the rabbit population? If possible, discuss your answer with your classmates and teacher. Natural disasters like forest fires or environment deterioration by humans and industrialized construction improvements.

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