Lab # Food Chains and Food WebsDate
I. Purpose: Explain what would happen to a food web if all the plants were removed?
CA Standard: (6e) Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the stability of its producers and decomposers.
Background: Plants use light energy of the sun to make food. The food is stored in the cells of the plant in an organelle called the vacoule. Plants are called producers because they make food. Some of the stored energy in the food plants make is passed on to the animals that eat the plants. Plant-eating animals are called primary consumers. Some of the energy is passed on to the animals that eat primary consumers. Animals that eat other animals are called secondary consumers.
The pathway that food takes through an ecosystem is called a food chain. A food chain also shows the movement of energy from plants to plant eaters and then to animal eaters. An example of a food chain can be written:
Seeds sparrow hawk
Some of the food energy (the calories available in the food) in the seed moves to the sparrow that eats them. Some of the food energy then moves to the hawk that eats the sparrow. Because a hawk eats animals other than sparrows, you could make a food chain for each animal the hawk eats. If all the food chains were connected, the result is a food web. A food web is a group of connected food chains. A food web shows many energy relationships
II. Materials: colored pencils or crayons
III. Procedure:
- Study the food chains listed 1-14 below.
- Using the circles on the next page, draw an arrow showing how the food energy moves from plant parts to the consumer. (food chain 1 has been completed for you)
- Continue drawing food chains 2-14. Use a different color for each food chain.
- Draw your lines so they bend around the animal names.
Food Chains
Producer 1st consumer 2nd consumer 3rd consumer 4th consumer
- Plant parts land snailmouse raccoon
- Plant partssparrowhawk
- Plant partsrabbitfox
- Plant partsmousefox
- Plant partsearthwormrobin snake
- Plant partsraccoonfox
- Plant partsrabbitsnake
- Plant partscricketrobin fox
- Plant partsearthwormsnake hawk fox
- Plant partsrabbithawk
- Plant partssmall insectsmouse owl
- Plant partsrabbitowl fox
- Plant partscricketmouse hawk
- Plant partsmousesnake owl
IV. Calculations/Results
V. Questions
1. In how many food chains do the following animals appear?
hawk____ earthworm ____fox ____owl____ snake____small insects _____
2. In how many food chains do plants appear?
3. List the names of the living things in this forest ecosystem that are producers.
4. What is a primary consumer?
5. List theprimary consumers in the food chains in this laboratory.
6. What is a secondary consumer?
7. List the secondary consumers in the food chains in this laboratory..
8. List the consumers that eat both plants and animals.
9. What type of energy do plants use to make food?
10. Where do plants store food?
Define each of the following words in a complete sentence:
11. Food web
12. Producer
13. Food energy
14. Consumer