Lesson 3: Players in an Ecosystem

Producer: Beginning of a food chain; Anything that gets energy from the sun and doesn't consume.
Consumer:  Any person/animal that consumes anything
Cow - Herbivore, Consumer
Sheep - Herbivore, Consumer
Deer - Herbivore, Consumer
Rabbit - Herbivore, Consumer
Grasshopper - Herbivore, Consumer
Lion - Carnivore, Consumer
Wolf - Carnivore, Consumer
Snake - Carnivore, Consumer
Hawk - Carnivore, Consumer
Praying Mantis - Carnivore, Consumer
Spiders - Carnivore, Consumer
Pig - Omnivore, Consumer
Bear - Omnivore, Consumer
Racoon - Omnivore, Consumer
Chipmunk - Omnivore, Consumer
Human - Omnivore, Consumer

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?

1.  The sun helps corn grow, which is a producer.  It is eaten by a grasshopper, which is a consumer.  The grasshopper is eaten by the chicken, which is then consumed by humans, which are primary consumers.

2.  A food web can be considered a system because every organism in it, plant or animal, depends on one another's survival, and in some cases, death.  It works like a system and matches the definition of one.

​3.  If a plant or animal all of a sudden disappears from the food web, everything would be thrown off.  For example, in the food chain "sunlight to apple to worm to bird to cat,"  if the worm is wiped out, apple numbers grow, but bird numbers decrees, which then makes cat numbers decrees.

4.  The apple gets it's matter from sunlight, the worm gets it from eating the apple, the bird gets it from eating the worm, and the cat gets it's matter from eating the bird.  

5.  The same way as #4, but the organism receives as much energy as the animal it ate had stored.

6.  It depends.  Sometimes a byproduct is left behind, while other times it is simply left behind.  Sometimes, another organism uses the byproduct or leftovers.