ALL BIOLOGY CLASSES
This week we are going to be focusing on how to graphically organize organisms in an ecosystem based on their ecological role (niche) and their feeding level (trophic) level. Our goal will be to understand why their are more producers in an ecosystem, but fewer top-level carnivores. So read about and watch the video on ecological pyramids!The plan is (weather permitting) to go on a nature walk this Wednesday and Thursday and exploring the role of microscopic producers and decomposers in the food web.
READ: Trophic Levels
WATCH: Ecological Pyramids
Answer Questions:
1. What is a trophic level?
2. Draw a terrestrial food chain that includes four trophic
levels. Identify the trophic level of each organism in the food chain.
3. Explain how energy limits the number of trophic levels in a food chain or web.
4. How much energy is transferred and lost from one trophic level to the next?
5. What happens to most of the energy at each trophic level?
Post Content Questions here
ReplyDelete1.how,specifically,did his fieldwork of follwing and observing the arctic fox lead charles elton to his conclusions about why large animals are rare?- his observations of the arctic fox lead him to believe large animals are rare because he saw how much energy it took for it to eat other animals and how the animals they ate had to be smaller than the fox itself.
ReplyDelete2.Why did elton conclude that animals' differing sizes are related to "the mechanics of eating and being eaten?"- He thought this because the animal's preys were always smaller then the consumer.
3.why is it that"natural selection tends to preserve size classes even when food chains start with a pabulum of meadow-forage or forest?"- Because its important to be a size that dosn't fit in someone ele's mouth as it is to have a mouth suited to the size of one's own prey.
4.what "fact of life" does elton's "pyramid of mumbers" describe?- Its saying with every jump in size an even mighter loss occurs in numbers.
5. Why are the explanations of lack of physical space,limitations of biomass,and the rapid reproduction of smaller creatures inadequate to answer the question of why large animals are rare?-because measuring an animals flesh in calories also alerts ones mind to the fact that bodies represent fuel as well as vessels for the soul as it states in the text.
6. how did raymond lindeman and evelyn hutchinson,by thinking of food and flesh as calories,finally furnish a satisfying explanation of the rarity of large animals?-because they learned that they animals get energy from calories by the food they ate and also from what their prey ate.also their calories go off to outer space as radiant heat.
7.in what way did the conclusions of lindeman and hutchinson change the way in which biologists view the regulation of population composition and size within a community?- They know think that big animals are fiece because an eater of a biomass eater's flesh,one has yet a smaller fraction to support even bigger and fiercer bodies.
8.how does fierceness as well as size,contribute to an animals rarity?-because its how there going to hunt and they need that fierceness.
9.in the 1950s and 1960s, what relationship did some biologists articulate between lindeman and hutchinsons and the second law of thermodynamics?- some relationships were energy degraded step by step as it flowed down food chains as it states in the text.
10.according to colinvaux,why don't elephants or whales prove lindeman and hutchinson's hypothesis wrong?- because they are plant eaters.
Kiranjit, this is an excellent response to the content questions!
ReplyDeleteAnswers
ReplyDeleteBy Matt B
1:Due to Elton's experience with the artic foxes, he learned that large animals are rare because they use more energy and need to recieve more energy.
2:Elton's conclusion was that animals that differ in sizes are related to the mechanics of eating and being eaten because the artic fox (for example) has to be big enough and powerful enough to consume the sandpiper, and the sandpiper has to be both big enough and powerful enough to consume the worms.
3:Natural selection tends to preserve size classes even when food chains start with pabulum of meadow-forage or forest because the prey of a hunter has to be big enough so that it cannot be eaten, but be small enough to eat its prey.
4:The fact of life that is shown in Elton's pyramid is that an animal has a vas number of prey to feast on, but has a few number of enemies to run from.
5:The 3 explanations of why large animals are rare are inadiquate because the artiuc fox, for example was observed with tons of room. Also smaller animals have more biomass than larger animals, so the larger animals have more to eat. Finally, the number of ones species is not determined on how many there are, but how one lives its life.
Answers Pt.2
ReplyDeleteBy: Matt B
6:By thinking of food and flesh as calories, Evelyn and Raymond found out why large animals are rare. It is because they use their fat and foods faster than other animal and when it is gone, they use extra energy to feed again.
7:The conclusions of Lindeman and Hutchinson changed biologists view on population decomposition and size in a community because larger communities need more food because they have more energy, while small communities don't need as much.
8:Due to an animals fierceness (and size), it contibutes to the rare factor because a fierce animal has to collect more energy, since it uses its energy up faster than an elephant for an example.
9:The relationship that was acknowdged by 1950 and 1960 biologists was that energy looses its power down the food chain.
10:Elephants and whales do no dispove Lindeman and Hutchison's hypothosis because the eat low levels of energy on the food web than eating something toward the top of the food web. :)
1. Elton had time to discover food chains and how they worked. Small plus numerous & bigger plus less numerous.
ReplyDelete2. Usually the larger animals will eat the smaller ones. If you are smaller, you will be eaten.
3. This is because the herbivores evolve sizes and allows them to catch skillfully.
4. The pyramid describes that if your small, there's enough energy for lots but if your big, there's only so much energy.
5. There is "no" lack of space, the size of smaller animals are higher in biomass. Then bigger animals and the number of them are set by the oppurtunities for one's way of life.
6. They believed that those who worried about the calories in their food the least were obese.
7. That the reason some things weren't being made as powerful and big because there wasn't enough energy for the larger items/organisms.
8. There's a small fraction that supports bigger and fiercer bodies. That's why they are so rare.
9. That energy degrades step by step as it flowss down the food web, losing its power to do work pouring steadily away to the sink of the heat.
10. All these big animals were plant eater and they didn't get a lot of calories but yet they were still big on land, leaves appear in continous mats so animals just eat not realizing how much they are eating therefore they get bigger.
1. Large animals are rare, because they must evolve to be bigger than its prey. Its takes up space and energy in the ecosystem.
ReplyDelete2. Animals must be bigger than its prey to eat them for energy.
3. The animal needs to be big so it wont be eaten and be able to eat. Large animals are few but take up mass, small animals are more with physical space
4. Lots of food options little prey.
5. There are many smaller animals, but there are very few large animals. smaller animals take use less biomass and physical space.
6. Large animals use their calories and fat faster then others. They get their energy from the food and the nutrients in it.
7. Smaller populations need less energy to live, while bigger populations need more energy.
8. Fierce animals are rare because they kill more prey and use more energy to hunt and eat.
9. Energy decreases as it goes through the food chain.
10. Whales and elephants "cut out the middlemen". they eat the direct source of energy in the pyramid with minimal effort in mass amount.
1. Elton had time to discover foo0d chains and how they worked. Smaller = numerous. Bigger = less numerous.
Delete2. USUALLY the bigger animals will eat the smaller animals; if you're smaller, you'll be eaten.
3. This is because the herbivores evolve sizes and allows them to catch skillfully.
4. The pyramid describes that if your small, there's enough energy for lots of them, but if your big there's only so much energy.
5. There is no lack of space, the size of smaller animals are higher in biomasses than bigger ones, and numbers are set by the oppurtunities for one's way of life.
6. Whoever thought about the calories in their food would be the least obese.
7. They thought there wasn't enough energy for the bigger animals.
8. There's a small part that actually supports the bigger animal's bodies, which makes them so rare.
9. Energy is degraded by steps. As it moves up the pyramid to the bigger animals, then there is less and less energy.
10.The big animals were herbivores and didn't get enough calories, but they were big. There were so many plants though, they just kept eating until they were satisfied.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete