Food Web Construction and Manipulation

Instructions

Purpose: To construct an accurate food web and discuss the implications of species extinction in the web.

Materials

  • Set of organism “squares” & questions
  • Colored Pencils
  • paper to glue “squares” onto
  • Glue
  • Scissors

Procedure

  1. Cut out each of the squares representing the animals/plants etc. in the food web.
  2. Arrange the cards into a logical food web, Make sure to draw the arrows in the appropriate direction showing energy flow. Use colored pencils to draw the arrows.
  • drawa green arrow between a producer and a 1stlevel consumer (herbivore) relationship/energy transfer.
  • Draw a red arrow between a 1stlevel consumer (herbivore) and a 2nd level consumer(carnivore) relationship/energy transfer.
  • Draw a blue arrow between a 2nd level consumer (carnivore) and a 3rd level consumer(carnivore) relationship/energy transfer.
  • Draw an orangearrow between a 3rd level consumer (carnivore) and a 4th level consumer (carnivore) relationship/energy transfer (if you have any).
  • AndDraw a yellow arrow (be careful of the direction of energy transfer) between the decomposer and any “dead organic matter” relationship.
  1. NEXT: Show your web to me and I will kill off one of the species in your web.
  2. Answer the questions on the sheet you cut off of the organism “squares” and staple it to your sheet you glued them onto, and turn it in!

Mouse
Eats: Grasshoppers,
Snails
Salt marsh plants
/ Rat
Eats: Sparrows
Grasshoppers, Snails
Salt marsh plants
/ Owl
Eats: Rats, Sparrows
Ducks, Sandpipers
/ Hawk
Eats:Shrews, Mice, rats

Heron
Eats:Fish
/ Duck
Eats: Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants, Algae
Grasshoppers, snails
/ Sandpiper
Eats:
Crustaceans, algae
/ Fish
Eats: Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae

Sparrow
Eats: Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants
Grasshoppers, snails
/ Shrew
Eats: Grasshoppers
Snails, mice
/ Small Crustacean
Eats:Salt water algae
/ Grasshopper
Eats:
Salt marsh plants

Snail
Eats:Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae
/ Water mold:
Decomposes: all dead
Organic matter
/ Salt water algae:
Energy Source:Sunlight
CO2, Water
/ Salt marsh plants
Energy Source:Sunlight
CO2, Water

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Questions: staple these to your paper you glued the Food Web

  1. What organisms are affected by the species“made “extinct” from your food web? List all:
  1. How will “its” (the extinct species) death impact the animals who feed on it (if any)?
  1. How will its extinction affect the species that were preyed upon by it (if any)?
  1. Different species are going extinct for each lab pair in the class… So, will every lab pair’s web be affected in the same way? EXPLAIN