Name ____________________
Food Webs Lab
Regents Biology
Purpose: To understand and represent the interrelationships of food chains.
Materials: PENCIL
Food Web Diagram: Given the following plants and animals and their relationships to
each other, construct a food web for the Smoky Mountain National Park. Everyone
should create his or her own food web, but you can work together to accomplish this
project. The web has been started for you on the attached page.
Plants: (These have already been written on your food web diagram.)
Wild apples, poplar trees, spruce trees, pine trees, grain, assorted twigs, blueberries,
assorted leaves, dead and decaying plant material.
Animals:
Deer
Porcupine
Mouse
Rabbit
Red squirrel
Weasel
Bear
Large insects
Snake
Frog
Hawk
Centipede
Sowbug
Earthworm
Salamander
Fox
What the animal eats:
wild apples, poplar twigs
bark of spruce and pine trees
grain, seeds from wild apples
grass, assorted twigs
seeds from spruce trees and pine trees
mice, frogs, rabbit
wild apples, blueberries, and mice
grass, leaves, smaller insects
frogs, salamanders, and mice
insects (large and small)
snakes, weasels, mice, and red squirrels
insects and earthworms
dead materials from all organisms
dead materials from all organisms
worms and insects
red squirrel, mice, and rabbits
Food web for the Smoky Mountain National Park:
**Remember: The completed food web will be a pyramid showing food energy
relationships! Finish the diagram!!!
Questions:
Answer the following questions in complete sentences!!! You WILL need more than one
sentence to answer each question!! In other words, take your time!!!
1. An insect pest that has no natural predators in the Smoky Mountains enters the area. It
feeds on apple tree flower buds and in the first year wipes out nearly all the wild apple
crop.
a. Explain the possible effects on the animals that feed on wild apples.
b. Explain the possible effects on the other sources of food for these animals.(Be
specific by using animal names.)
2. There are deer in the Smoky Mountain region that migrate in and out of the park. The
deer are heavily hunted when they move out of the park. This year as a result of hunting
alone, the deer population has severely decreased.
a. Explain how this will affect the plants that the deer eat.
b. Tell how many other animals would be affected by the decreased browsing
(eating) of the deer. (Be specific by using animal names.)
3. The public develops a fear of foxes because of a small child being attacked this spring.
They respond by putting a bounty on all foxes in the area. The population is decreased
dramatically. How will this effect other animal populations? (Be specific by using
animal names.)