Transcript Activity 79 Eating for Energy

 Challenge:
How are the energy
relationships among
organisms in an
ecosystem affected
by the introduction
of a new species?
 Key Vocabulary:
• Consumer
• Ecosystem
• Photosynthesis
• Plankton
• Producer
Humans
Cow
Grass
Wheat
Consumer: organisms that obtain food
by eating other organisms
Where does the grass of wheat
obtain food?
An Ecosystem is a group of living
organisms, their habitat, and the non-living
things they interact with
 Attach
Student Sheet 79.1 into your
notebooks and answer question #1
 We
will finish #2-3 after we complete the
activity.
Brainstorm ways in which zebra mussels
might accidentally be spread from one
lake to another.
Why are producers such as plants, an
essential part of any ecosystem?




Copy the food web into
your notebooks.
Identify each organism
as a producer or
consumer.
Add humans to this food
web.
In the lake food web,
humans are consumers.
Are humans always
consumers? Explain.
 Using
the above food web as a guide,
create a lake food web that includes
zebra mussels.
 Be
sure to show how zebra mussels get
their energy AND how other organisms
get money from them.


Look at the zebra mussel map. The lines
across the U.S. represent large rivers.
Where do you predict zebra mussels will be
found in the next 10 years? The next 20 years?
The next 50 years? Explain your predictions.
 Are
producers a
necessary part of the
Northern pike’s
ecosystem?
 Answer
 Answer
questions 1-2 in your notebooks.
question #3 on the sheet
provided.
 You
may have changed your thinking for:
• #3. You should realize that the size of the introduced
species has very little effect on the problems it can
cause.
• #4. You should realize that zebra mussels are not at
the top of the food web, although their predators
cannot keep up with their population growth
• #5. There is no doubt that zebra mussels are harmful
– BUT, it does say that the Great Lakes ecosystem is
600% clearer than before they were introduced.
 Discuss
how your ideas changed…
 Make
sure you explain what happens to
each population (every one!!) to receive
full credit.
 This
is a SI Assessment.
Refer to your Rubrics 