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Challenge:
How are the energy relationships among organisms in an ecosystem affected by the introduction of a new species?
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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

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Attach Student Sheet 79.1 into your notebooks and answer question #1
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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?

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Copy the food web into your notebooks.
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Identify each organism as a producer or consumer.
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Add humans to this food web.
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In the lake food web, humans are consumers.
Are humans always consumers? Explain.

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Using the above food web as a guide, create a lake food web that includes zebra mussels.
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Be sure to show how zebra mussels get their energy AND how other organisms get money from them.

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Look at the zebra mussel map. The lines across the U.S. represent large rivers.
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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.

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Are producers a necessary part of the
Northern pike’s ecosystem?


Answer questions 1-2 in your notebooks.

Answer question #3 on the sheet provided.