Ecology Study Guide 1 Name: _____Answer Key______

Directions: Using the facts, please complete the problems below.

1. Choose an organism in your backyard and explain its niche. Be sure the niche includes all three aspects.

Niche = the role a living thing plays in its habitat such as predator, prey, competitor, etc.

1. your role is to eat so that you limit your prey population

2. your role is to be eaten (or be decomposed) so that you support your predator population

3. your role is to reproduce so that you support your own population

The Mexican spotted owl is threatened by the loss of old growth forests (its preferred habitat). As the region becomes hotter and drier, there is a loss of vegetation, which is a problem for the Mexican spotted owl because they live in nests, which are made in trees. Their prey populations are decreasing with the loss of rain and the higher temperatures. Extended droughts also increase the likelihood of wildfires. They are also affected by other owl species who compete for resources.

2. If the Mexican spotted owl was to go extinct, what would happen to their prey population and why?

The prey population should INCREASE because the predator population (the thing that eats the prey) is decreasing, in other words there are less things to eat them so their population should increase.

3. If the Mexican spotted owl was to go extinct, what would happen to their predator population and why?

The population of the owl’s predators should DECREASE because their food source or prey (the owl) is decreasing so they have less to eat.

4. A Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) is a plant that performs photosynthesis but also eats flies (meat). Are Venus fly traps consumers/heterotrophs or producers? HINT: There is no right or wrong answer. You are being graded based on how well you defend your answer.

The Venus fly trap is a consumer/heterotroph because it gains energy through the eating of flies but it could be a producer too because it also obtains energy through the process of photosynthesis.

5. Using the below food web, identify three food chains.

/ Any THREE of the following:
Clover – rabbit – owl
Clover – rabbit – hawk
Clover – caterpillar – frog – snake
Clover – mouse – owl
Clover – mouse – hawk
Clover – mouse – snake
Wheat – grasshopper – frog – snake
Wheat – mouse – hawk
Wheat – mouse – owl
Wheat – mouse – snake
Dandelion – caterpillar – frog - snake

6. If you were an ecologist, what is the organism you would study and list five abiotic or biotic things it is connected to?

Biotic Factor = a living thing in an ecosystem (predator, prey, food sources, etc.)

Abiotic Factor = a non-living physical or chemical part of an ecosystem (pollution, acid rain, temperature, etc.

7. Directions: For this next section, please fill in the blank with one of your facts.

My name is Sean and I live in a castle. I don’t eat meat but I love vegetables, fruits, and beans. Consumers that are like me are called ___herbivore/vegetarian______. My name is Bella. I am in 7th grade. I enjoy ice cream, scrambled eggs, pork chops with apple sauce, chicken fettuccine alfredo, steak and potatoes, garden salads, and cucumbers smothered in sour cream. Consumers that are like me are called __omnivore______. My name is Kaitlyn and I’m an ecologist. I am studying the relationship between the sunflower and the honey bee. Sunflowers make their own food so they are _producers/autotrophs.

My name is Matthew. I have a collection of fungi in my bedroom. Fungi are important because they are _decomposers__, which break down dead organisms returning nutrients to the soil. My name is Jacob and although I share my name with a very famous character, I am not a werewolf. Werewolves only eat meat so they are _____carnivores______. Let me introduce myself. My name is Maddie and my favorite color is green. I love to study animals. In my opinion, __scavengers______are the laziest type of animal because they don’t kill their own meals but wait for other animals to do it for them. They love leftovers!

I am Joseph and I love to eat ice cream. It’s my favorite form of energy. In order for me to obtain energy I have to eat so I am a ____consumer/heterotroph______. My name is Alberto and I like to learn new words. I learned that the word consumer can be replaced with the fancier term of _heterotroph____ because the two words mean the same. I am Emmie and I live in Prescott, Arizona in the woods. When I was five, I saw a buzzard eating the leftovers of a deer carcass on the side of the road. The deer is __carrion_____.

8. Read the Far Side cartoon below and then explain what happened to the unicorn and why the carnivores are going to be confined to the C deck on the ship.

/ Carnivores eat meat ONLY and so a carnivore ate the unicorn and if they are NOT confined to the C deck of the ship they would eat ALL the other animals. In reality even if all carnivores were confined to the C deck they would still need to eat the other carnivores on that deck since they eat meat only.