Extra Credit Project Describe what happened at Yellowstone

Extra Credit Project • Describe what happened at Yellowstone Park when the wolf population went away. • You can make a written report, powerpoint, prezi, comic, video, etc. • It is worth up to 50 points, but it must be really good to get that amount of points. • Due February 12. • Do not copy text from you sources! EVER!!

Essential Question How is energy transferred among organisms?

Food Chains • Food chains use pictures or words and arrows to show the movement of energy through the trophic levels of organisms. • The trophic level of an organism indicates the position that the organism occupies in the food chain. • It shows what it eats and what eats it.

Producers & Consumers The levels are numbered according to how far the particular organism is along the chain. • Producers are at level 1. (Plants are producers because they produce their own food. ) • Herbivores are at level 2. (consumer) • Predators are at level 3. (consumer) And so on…

Anything that cannot make its own food must eat to survive. It must “consume” its food! It is a consumer.

Types of Consumers • Herbivore: consumer that eats ONLY plants • Carnivore: a consumer that eats other animals • Omnivore: consumer that eats BOTH plants and animals • Decomposers: breaks down the remains of other organisms

The owl eats the snake that ate the frog that ate the caterpillar that ate the flower.

Note: There’s something wrong. What is it?

Why does this look more like a “cycle” than a chain? Let’s discuss this one in detail.

Why is the SUN in this picture?

q In this food chain, what is the producer? q What is the first level consumer? q What is the second level consumer? q Is the polar bear the 3 rd level consumer? Explain.

Trophic Levels

Food Webs • Food webs describe the organisms found in interconnecting food chains using pictures or words and arrows. • In other words, food webs are a bunch of food chains all together! • They describe the complex patterns of energy flow in an ecosystem by modeling who consumes whom or what.

Let’s follow a few food chains found in this food web.

There a lot of arrows here, but they’re easy to follow. Try it.

Food Webs are EASY!

Energy Pyramids • An energy pyramid shows the amount of energy that moves from one trophic level to another in a food chain. • The most energy is available at the producer level of the pyramid. • The availability of energy decreases as it moves up the energy pyramid.

The most energy is at the producer level – the base of the pyramid.

The Energy Pyramid

Who needs the most energy to survive?

Making a Model v Let’s make a model of an energy pyramid. v The model you will construct will be simple. It will show pictures of the producers and consumers at each level, the names in words, and the trophic levels. v The good news is that this model really is perfect for meeting our objectives relating to energy pyramids. v Make sure you follow all instructions for proper completion of the model.

Acknowledgements • • All pictures were obtained from various sources on Google Images. None of the pictures/illustrations are mine. Credit is given to all artists/photographers for their work. Powerpoint modified from http: //webcache. googleusercontent. com/search? q=cache: a 75 Go. T_9 l. S g. J: hms. sumterschools. net/download. axd%3 Ffile%3 Dd 9 c 21141 -a 7 f 8486 e-a 189819167 bf 5 a 63%26 dnld. Type%3 DResource+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us