The consumers and the organisms that are being consumed

Reburiano, James Christian B.

10^th Grade Engineering

Ms. KJ

10/18/07

I. Introduction

1. Purpose

The purpose of the marine food web was to learn how to create a food web based on what organisms eat and to learn the basics of ecology. Another purpose was to learn how to make different food chains to make a food web. Also, this teaches us to read a food web and how it goes, either it is consumed by an organism or it consumes an organism.

2. Process

The Process was to walk around the class and record data about the different organisms listed. Also, we have information around the room to get data with and then we cut out the pictures of organisms then paste them in the white paper. After, we used different colors to identify different food chains in the food web. We figured out many different food chains in that food web.

II. Materials

1. White paper

2. Scissors

3. The paper that has the information

4. Pictures of the organisms

5. Makers

III. Data

1. Chart of Important terms and relationships:

Organism	Ecology Term(s) Relating to this organism	Picture example of another organism from another food web
Orca	Top level consumer Carnivore Heterotroph
Salmon	Secondary Consumer Carnivore Heterotroph
Herring	Secondary and Primary Consumer Herbivore Heterotroph
Baleen Whale	Secondary and Primary Consumer Omnivore Heterotroph
Sea Lion	Secondary Consumer Carnivore Heterotroph
Sea Bird	Secondary Consumer Scavenger Heterotroph
Zoo Plankton	Primary Consumer Herbivore Scavenger Heterotroph
Phytoplankton	Producer/Autotroph
Crustaceans	Decomposer Heterotroph Consumer
Bacteria	Decomposer Heterotroph Consumer

2. Energy Pyramid

VI. Analysis

1. The Producers are important in the food web because they are the main source of life for the primary consumers. Without the producers, the primary consumers won’t be able to eat anything so they will die and if it happens the secondary consumers won’t be able to eat anything because the primary consumers died out. The whole cycle of the food web will be destroyed and every organism in it will die out.

2. The decomposers are important in the food web because they recycle the dead organisms into oxygen and so that the dead organisms just don’t stay on one place so it won’t cause diseases to the other living organisms there.

3. Ecosystems function when they are perfect balance means that if the food web has more than the required element, like the producers, the cycle wouldn’t be balanced because there will be more organisms consuming the required element and the required element would be depleted which will cause the lack of food 4 the primary consumers which will cause them 2 die out. If the primary consumers die out the next trophic level will be affect and it goes on until everything gets affected.

4. The energy pyramid shows the organisms in each trophic level. Also it shows the transfer of energy in each trophic level which is only 10% of energy that are being transfer to the next trophic level. Making a square isn’t necessary because the transfer of energy isn’t always 100%. 90% of the energy disappears and only 10% of the energy gets transferred.

5. Biomass is the total weight of living matter at each trophic level. Biomass is related to the energy pyramid because as the level of the pyramid gets higher the bigger the organism will be and it is able to consume more organisms.

V. Conclusion

1. In the food webs and energy pyramids I learned that lots of organisms consume other organisms. Also I learned that each level of the pyramid 90% of the energy disappears and only 10% is kept and as it goes higher in the pyramid, the lower calories it has. Another thing I learned is that the food chains in a food web.

2. Humans contribute in a bad way in the perfect balance of the ecosystems because we pollute the surroundings which cause organisms to die out or become homeless. Also humans pollute the air which causes global warming and this causes the organism’s seasons to be earlier. The other thing is that cutting trees in the forests which makes the other organisms homeless and die out which makes other organisms die out also because they don’t have anything else to eat.