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Ecology Webquest
Ecologist: (YOUR NAME)_____________________________________
Part I: Ecosystems and Nutrient Cycling
FOOD WEBS
(1)
Go to http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/food/food_menu.html and choose one of the three food webs.
Put all 3 food webs together!
Consumers/Heterotrophs – are living things that need producers to be their food (animals and people)
Producers/Autotrophs – living things which take the non living matter from the environment (plants)
Decomposers – living things which feed off of dead plants and animals (bacteria, fungi)
(2) Using the information in the table above and what you know about trophic levels answer the following questions
about one of the food webs you completed:
Name a producer/autotroph in your food web ________________________________
Name a primary consumer in your food web__________________________
Name a secondary consumer in your food web ________________________
Who are usually the decomposers in a food web? _______________________
If the producer has 750 units of energy, and this food chain follows the general 10% rule of energy transfer (only 10% of
the energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next) how much energy will be available for the primary
consumer? _____________ …….for the secondary consumer? ___________________
NUTRIENT CYCLING
A. Carbon Cycle
Go to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/co2_cycle.html, read about the carbon cycle and fill in
the blanks below:
Plants pull carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere to make food, through a process called
________________________________.
Through _________________ _________________animals get carbon from the plants and other animals they eat.
When plants and animals die and ______________, carbon goes back into the ground.
When humans and animals exhale, they release carbon back into the air by a process called
_____________________________________.
Some carbon is buried deep in the ground and forms ________________________.
When humans burn fossil fuels, ____________________________________ is released back into the atmosphere.
The ___________________ soak up some carbon from the atmosphere. (This is known as a carbon sink.)
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Carbon dioxide is a ______________________ ________ and traps heat in the atmosphere. Because humans have
burned so much fuel, there is about ____________ more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150
years ago.
B. Nitrogen Cycle
Go to the website http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Life/nitrogen_cycle.html&edu=mid and answer
the questions below:
1.
What are 2 ways nitrogen becomes useable to plants, humans, and animals?
________________________________
2.
__________________________________
How do herbivores (and other animals) obtain the nitrogen they need?
_________________________________________________________
3.
What role do bacteria play in the nitrogen cycle? Do you remember the name of the plants that these bacteria
are typically associated with?
_________________________________________________________
_____________________________
4.
What are two ways humans impact the nitrogen cycle:
___________________________________________
________________________________________
Part II: Ecological Succession
Visit the web link: Succession Link
1. How is primary succession different from secondary succession?
2. How do you think the rate of secondary succession compares to the rate of primary succession?
http://bcs.whfreeman.com/thelifewire/content/chp55/55020.html
Visit the link above, read the introduction, watch the animation, take the quiz, and answer the following questions:
3. What are some of the “pioneer” species in glacial moraines?
4. How do alder trees affect nitrogen content in soil?
5. Explain what happens to the spruce tree growth.
6. Write the answers to the two quiz questions.
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