Transcript Activity 85: Is There Room for One More? Activity85

• Challenge What is carrying capacity?
Key Vocabulary:
• Carrying capacity
• Fluctuation
• Population
•What factors might affect the
amount of room available for a
species in an ecosystem?
•Read the Introduction on page E-70.
• Carrying Capacity is the maximum
population of a species that can be
supported by its environment.
Read pages 70-73.
Answer the Stopping to Think Questions with your group
and record your answers in your notebooks.
When you are finished, work with your group to answer
Analysis # 2-3 in your notebooks.
• A. What is happening
to the quantity of
plankton at point A?
• There must be enough
plankton to feed the
growing population of
zebra mussels. If the
plankton population was
insufficient, the mussel
population could not be
able to grow.
• B. What is happening to
the quantity of plankton
at point B?
• A lack of sufficient food
could be the factor
preventing the mussel
population from
increasing beyond that
level
• A. What is the carrying
capacity of ZM in Lake
Ness? How did you
determine this?
• The carrying capacity is
approximately 2000
organisms per square meter.
• This is obtained by sketching
an imaginary line from the
plateau of the curve, parallel
to the x-axis, until it intersects
with the y-axes
• B. List some factors that
might affect this carrying
capacity.
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Oxygen availability
Nutrient and food availability
Competition for resources
Predation
Sunlight
Other environmental factors
• A. CC of ZM between
years 13-25?
• About 1000 mussels per
square meter
• B. 3 NON-Living factors
with an explanation.
• Human pollution, change in
temperature, pH, wind or
precipitation
• C. 3 Living factors with
an explanation.
• Decline in food, introduction
of a ZM predator, increase
in a population of
competing species or new
competing apecies
• D. Do you think the ZM
population will return to
what it was between
years 5-10?
Explain!
• Is this a good experiment to test the hypothesis that the
factory was affecting the zebra mussel population? Why
or why not?
• This experiment does not resolve the question of whether
the factory is responsible for the change in the carrying
capacity of the ZM.
• It does provide information about whether the factory has
affected the quality of the water in a way that will directly
affect the growth of the mussels.
• You can’t determine carrying capacity with this graph because
the graph doesn’t provide information about the total
population of Nile perch in the lake.
• Instead it provides information about the number of Nile perch
caught.
• One could assume that the population was continuing to
increase. However, it is difficult to know if the increase in the
number of Nile Perch caught is due to better fishing techniques
or to an increase in the population.
• Additional information would be necessary to determine the
reason or combination of reasons.
• Complete Analysis Q 1 :
• Answer all three parts. (a, b, c)
• Use numbers of owls and years.
• Explain your thinking for parts b and c.