Biology Activity: Food Web Puzzle & Energy Pyramids
Name:____________________________________
Alaska Rainforest: This is an area of Alaska with mountains as high as 18,000 feet and glaciers jutting out of the ocean. It
is considered a rainforest, not because it is warm, but because of how much rain it gets – over 9 feet per year! Much of this
rainforest is in the Tongass National Forest. This forest has snow-capped mountain peaks and deep glacial valleys and is
filled with animals such as bears and moose.
Salmon: The salmon eats frogs and tadpoles.
Orca whale: Eats fish, squid, seals, octopus, sharks, smaller whales
Sea lion: Sea lions eat fish, squid, clams, and crabs.
River otter: The otter eats clams, crayfish, frogs, toads, snakes, beetles, snails, worms, and
bird eggs.
Gray jay: The gray jay eats fruits, seeds and insects. In winter a large part of its diet is made up of conifer seeds.
Roosevelt elk: the Roosevelt elk eats mostly grass but can eat other foods such as browse, which is bushes and trees, and
huckle berry bushes, salmon berry bushes, and Douglas fir trees.
Black-tailed deer: In the summer, the black tailed deer eats grass and shrub leaves. In the winter,
it eats evergreen forbs and bark.
Olympic marmot: The Olympic marmot eats a variety of grasses, flowers and green plants including
sedges, lupines, mosses, lilies, and heather blossoms.
Black bear: The American black bear eats anything and everything, but is basically vegetarian.
Tadpole: eats almost anything. Specifically likes algae and insects
Frogs: insects, worms, snails
Your group needs to work together to form a food web of the animals you were given.
Procedure
1) Draw a BIG sun in the middle of your paper.
2) Cut out the pictures. Cut around the name of each organism so they are easy to identify.
3) Paste the pictures onto your paper around the initial source of energy (the sun).
4) Decide and label whether each plant or animal is a producer, herbivore, carnivore or omnivore from the
descriptions. Write the label on each picture.
5) Make connections between the animals and plants that are likely connected in the Sonoran Desert food web. Draw
arrows to indicate energy flow. BE CAREFUL – make sure your arrows are pointing the correct direction.
6) Find TWO food chains within the food web created. Label each organism in the TWO food chain with the
appropriate trophic level. You should have at least one food chain with FOUR trophic levels.
7) Obtain teacher approval.
8) Answer the analysis questions.
Analysis
1. Using the food chain with FOUR trophic levels, place the organisms within the energy pyramid below.
Don’t forget labels.
2. On the bottom level of the energy pyramid created, write “9,000 kcal” . This is the amount of available
energy that level possesses. Label how much energy is transferred to each of the other three levels.
3. What happens to the amount of energy as you go up the energy pyramid? Be specific as possible.
4. Why doesn’t each trophic level receive ALL of the energy from the trophic level below it?
5. How is an energy pyramid different than a food chain or food web?
6. Why is it very unlikely for a food chain to be more than 10 “links” long? Think about your answer to
#3.
7. Where could decomposers or scavengers fit into the food web that you created?
Sitka spruce
Black bear
Western hemlock
Black-tailed deer
Roosevelt elk
Olympic marmot
Tadpole
Gray jay
Salmon
Frog
River otter
Western red cedar
Sea lion
Lilies
Orca
Dragonfly
Shore pine
White spruce
Clams
Pacific yew
Silver fir
Insects