Ecosystems include both biotic and abiotic components that can influence food chains. In this activity the abiotic components are referred to as an ecological force or disturbance. Choose one of the disturbance cards, read the information provided, and then make a prediction about how it might impact the food chain you created above.
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Question 13
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Place the organisms from your original food chain on the pyramid.
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Question 14
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Using the rule of 10% in energy transfer, determine how much energy would be available for a primary consumer if the producer level has 3,500,000 kilocalories of energy/area.
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Question 19
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Now choose and read a different disturbance card and predict its impact on your food web. What is your ecological force?
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Question 3
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Which correctly shows the feeding relationship and the flow of energy in an ecosystem.
Question 4
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Justify why you chose A or B as the correct model.
Question 5
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Select 4 cards to create a food chain, starting with a producer. Write your food chain below and label the trophic level of each organism in your food chain as: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer.
Question 6
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What is your ecological force?
Question 7
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Describe the ecosystem impacts noted on the card
Question 8
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Predict how these impacts would affect tertiary consumers.
Question 9
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Predict how these impacts would affect secondary consumers.
Question 10
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Predict how these impacts would affect primary consumers.
Question 11
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Predict how these impacts would affect producers.
Question 12
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Not all disturbances have negative consequences for all trophic levels. In one or two sentences, describe a possible benefit that one trophic level in your food chain may gain from the disturbance you selected
Question 15
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Using the rule of 10% in energy transfer, determine how much energy would be available for a secondary consumer if the producer level has 3,500,000 kilocalories of energy/area.
Question 16
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Using the rule of 10% in energy transfer, determine how much energy would be available for a tertiary consumer if the producer level has 3,500,000 kilocalories of energy/area.
Question 17
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In one or two sentences, describe how the available energy may affect the population sizes of organisms at different trophic levels.
Question 18
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Starting with your original food chain, add another plant and four more animal cards to construct a food web that shows how energy flows from producers through primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and possibly a quaternary consumer. When making your food web, you can have more than one arrow leading to and from each organism. Draw your version of your food web below.
Question 20
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Describe the ecosystem impacts noted on the card
Question 21
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Predict how these impacts would affect tertiary consumer.
Question 22
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Predict how these impacts would affect secondary consumer.
Question 23
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Predict how these impacts would affect primary consumer.
Question 24
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Predict how these impacts would affect producer
Question 25
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Describe whether some trophic levels benefit from the disturbance while others do not. If the disturbance was caused by humans, was it negative or positive for each trophic level in the food chain?
Question 26
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State one thing the food chain model is useful for illustration or predicting.
Question 27
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One feature that the food chain model lacks or one thing that could lead to a misconception
Question 28
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State one thing the energy pyramid model is useful for illustration or predicting.
Question 29
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One feature that the energy pyramid model lacks or one thing that could lead to a misconception
Question 30
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State one thing the food web model is useful for illustration or predicting.
Question 31
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One feature that the energy pyramid model lacks or one thing that could lead to a misconception
Question 32
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Select the model that you think is most effective in representing relationship among organisms in the ecosystem and justify your choice in two or three sentences.
