Lesson 3: Players in an Ecosystem

Notes:
A producer is the beginning of the food chain because they consume energy from the sun. All animals are consumers because they eat the plants and each other. A food web includes producers and consumers. Plants are mostly producers, and animals are consumers. Herbivores only eat plants, carnivores eat animals, and omnivores eat both animals and plants. Or primary consumers eat producers, and secondary consumers eat the primary consumers.
 

Herbivores:
Cow
Sheep
Deer
Rabbit
Grasshopper

Omnivore/Carnivore:
Lion - Carnivore
Wolf - Carnivore
Snake - Carnivores
Hawk - Carnivore
Preying Mantis - Carnivores
Spider - Omnivore
Pig - Omnivores
Bear - Omnivore
Raccoon - Omnivores
Chipmunk - Omnivores
Human - Omnivores

Evey thing in each list is a consumer!

This Is a food chain

Reflection Questions:

1. Choose one of your Food Chains that you created and explain how it works.
2. Can a Food Web be considered a "system"? Why or why not?
3. What happens if a plant or animal all of a sudden disappears from the food web?
4. Using this food chain, "sunlight to apple to worm to bird to cat," How do organisms in this food chain get the matter they need for body repair and growth?
5. Using the same food chain in #4, How do organisms in that food chain get the energy they need for body warmth and motion?
6. What do you think happens to the matter that is NOT used by the organisms in a food chain or food web? Is it wasted or does something else happen?
   

Answers:

1. The food chain I created starts with the sun, which helps the grass grow. The deer eat the grass, and then the lion comes and eats the deer.
2. Yes, a food web can be a system because there are lots of steps of how primary and secondary consumers eat. For example, a mouse will eat the grass, then a snake will come eat the mouse!
3. If an animal disappears from the food web, it would totally mess up the whole food web! This is because if one animal is gone, it's predictor will go hungry and die out, and it repeats! All of the food web will eventually die out.
4. When one organism eats something, they gain nutrients from it and store some away. And when a animal comes and eats that animal, they get the nutrients that it had stored away.
5. The animals get the energy by one eating grass, then storing some calories away. Then when it's predator eats it, he or she will receive the calories it stored away, and it will be digesting, therefore keeping it warm. 
6. I think that the matter is stored away for later, so maybe when they are desperately in need for energy, they can use it. Or when they eat a small meal that matter will come in handy giving it the energy it needs.