Introduction
Hello fellow scientists! Welcome to Mr. Gaffney's WebQuest on the conservation and management of ecosystems, as part of your Stage 5 science course.
This resource is a fun, interactive and (hopefully) interesting way to discover a lot of important concepts like food chains, food webs, interactions between organisms, and how we as humans can effect the ecosystem.
Throughout the next couple of lessons, you will be learning about and using different types of software to make your work come to life and become an expert in your chosen ecosystem and Australian organisms that live in it.
Just remember to take your time and ask for help if you need it. Talk to each other, help each other out, but be productive in your work!
Task
First, lets talk about ecosystems. What is an ecosystem?
Watch this 2 minute video to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYmdrJWLQ4Y
Below is a table that you are going to start filling out for key terms we come across throughout the topic. You will copy and paste this into your notes and complete it as we progress through the next couple of lessons.
| Key terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
| Ecosystem | A community of... |
| Abiotic | |
| Biotic |
What kind of ecosystems can you think of? Brainstorm with a partner two different types of ecosystems you can. They can be in Australia or elsewhere, terrestrial or aquatic, small or huge. Start to list what kinds of animals and plants live in this ecosystem.
For example, in the ocean I know that small fish are eaten by bigger fish. Sharks are predators and might prey on those bigger fish. What do the smaller fish eat?Maybe microscopic organisms like plankton. I know that they get their energy from the sun.
Process
Now it starts to get really fun.
The video you watched mentioned food chains and food webs. Ever heard of them before?
Below is a food chain of my oceanic ecosystem I mentioned. It's simple and pretty and easy to follow.
Essentially, it starts with the sun. It's the source of all our energy and where all food chains and food webs begin. Energy from the sun is taken in by phytoplankton (which are microscopic plants) and eaten by zooplankton (microscopic animals). The flow of energy continues on as the zooplankton are eaten by increasing sizes of fish until finally the shark eats the mahi mahi fish.
Energy. That's what it's all based on. Every plant and animal needs energy in order to survive. We get it from our food and it originally comes from the sun.
So food chains are diagrams that show the flow of energy from the sun all the way to the top predator.
Now it's your turn. Use your ecosystems from the last page and construct a food chain in your notes to show the flow of energy. You'll need to start at the sun, then plants, then animals and their predators. Keep going til you get to the biggest predator in that ecosystem.
Google is your friend if you're missing organisms or want to check the diet of different animals.
Keep is simple and in one straight line. You might find two organisms that eat the same thing but we are going to get more complex later when we talk about food webs. Try to get at least the sun and 3 organisms in your food chain.
Write their names and include a picture so it's nice to look at. You could be general (e.g. small fish) or specific (e.g. flathead fish). Just don't start labeling them 'James' or 'Lucy' or something silly like you might have been thinking to do!
Evaluation
Finally, the last thing we are going to be looking at today are food webs.
Food webs are the same as food chains, but energy flows split to show a more complex ecosystem. Below is another example of my ocean food web.
Alright, you can stop laughing at my attempt at sketching a basking shark now! He's an important part of the ecosystem.
Just like food chains, the energy flow is shown through arrows pointing towards what is eating the last organism. They branch out sometimes two different animals may have the same diet.
In this case, both herring fish and the basking shark eat zooplankton. Additionally, the puffin and the tuna eat the herring fish as well. And lastly, the tuna are eaten both by us (humans) and the dolphin.
Your turn!
Have a look at this page. It allows you to build a digital food web by arranging and connecting the energy flows of the plants and animals provided. Read the instructions to create your own food web. I'm sure you can put a lot of it together through common sense (like how the plant won't eat the deer).
If you're unsure about one, use Google to see if there is a connection. "Does a jaguar eat skunks?" might be something you could type in. When you think you're done, grab me and I'll check that you're all good to screen shot it and add it to your notes.
Conclusion
Aaaand we're back for the second lesson working on Mr. Gaffney's WebQuest.
So far, we've talked about ecology, food chains, and food webs. You should have started a key terms table, your own food chain, and a screenshot of a complete food web for your notes. Yes? Good!
Today we are going to be expanding on what we've learned and look at the types of relationships between organisms, as well as look at a food pyramid. We will be adding a few new words to our key terms table too. In fact, lets jump right in.
Below are some more terms you'll add to your key terms table. To complete these, I want you to check this page out and summarize the definitions they give you. Be sure to include an example or two in your definition.
| Key Term | Definition |
| Producer | |
| All animals. They do not produce their own food so they eat other organisms. There are three types; herbivores (eat only plants), carnivores (eat only meat), and omnivores (eat both plants and animals) | |
| Decomposer |
Simple, right? Well lets test that. Here is a fun game for you to play and prove you have what it takes to successfully categorize all the things! How fun!
How did you go? Decomposers can be a little tricky sometimes, can't they? But they're just as important as the other two. Why?
Again, it's all about energy. Energy comes from the sun, works its way along the food web (or food chain), but is returned back into the environment eventually. Decomposers help break it down and it's back in the soil for the plants to use once again. The energy that is reused might not be as much compared to when it started, but along with the sun's energy being absorbed by plants, energy will keep feeding through to the organisms furthest down the food web.
Starts to make you appreciate the importance of agriculture in our lives, right? Without crops to eat and feed farmed animals, we wouldn't be able to survive. We need energy (i.e. food) and we need a lot of it!
From the food web you made yesterday, imagine how many plants it would take to feed all the deer, all the skunks, all the lizards, all the insects and all the birds of the world. The jaguars can only exist if there is enough food for them too; the birds, skunks, deer, lizards, etc. So the jaguars are just as dependent on the plants as everybody else. In fact, more-so because if there aren't enough plants for the jaguar's prey to eat, there's no way the jaguar survives.
Makes you think, doesn't it?