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    Part 1: The Producers: Challenge

    Uploaded by

    Jj Grande
    This document provides instructions for an ecology lab simulation involving producers, herbivores, omnivores, and top predators. In the first part, students predict and observe the effects of introducing a herbivore that eats the dominant producer, to see if it allows the non-dominant producer to proliferate. Adding the herbivore did not fully equalize the producers. In the second part, students run simulations with a linear food chain and a more complex web. They predict and observe population changes, and try to modify the food web to ensure all species survive. Most benefited from decomposers recycling nutrients. Energy flows from producers to higher trophic levels through consumption.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Part 1: The Producers: Challenge

    Uploaded by

    Jj Grande
    205 views2 pages
    This document provides instructions for an ecology lab simulation involving producers, herbivores, omnivores, and top predators. In the first part, students predict and observe the effects of introducing a herbivore that eats the dominant producer, to see if it allows the non-dominant producer to proliferate. Adding the herbivore did not fully equalize the producers. In the second part, students run simulations with a linear food chain and a more complex web. They predict and observe population changes, and try to modify the food web to ensure all species survive. Most benefited from decomposers recycling nutrients. Energy flows from producers to higher trophic levels through consumption.

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    Ecology_lab_simulations

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    This document provides instructions for an ecology lab simulation involving producers, herbivores, omnivores, and top predators. In the first part, students predict and observe the effects of introducing a herbivore that eats the dominant producer, to see if it allows the non-dominant producer to proliferate. Adding the herbivore did not fully equalize the producers. In the second part, students run simulations with a linear food chain and a more complex web. They predict and observe population changes, and try to modify the food web to ensure all species survive. Most benefited from decomposers recycling nutrients. Energy flows from producers to higher trophic levels through consumption.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    205 views2 pages

    Part 1: The Producers: Challenge

    Uploaded by

    Jj Grande
    This document provides instructions for an ecology lab simulation involving producers, herbivores, omnivores, and top predators. In the first part, students predict and observe the effects of introducing a herbivore that eats the dominant producer, to see if it allows the non-dominant producer to proliferate. Adding the herbivore did not fully equalize the producers. In the second part, students run simulations with a linear food chain and a more complex web. They predict and observe population changes, and try to modify the food web to ensure all species survive. Most benefited from decomposers recycling nutrients. Energy flows from producers to higher trophic levels through consumption.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Name___________________ 1

    Interactive Lab
    Ecology Lab

    Part 1: The Producers


    Go to
    http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/interactives/ecology/food_web.php

    Challenge
    Try to get two plants to happily co–exist. In any given ecosystem, most
    organisms will carve out a niche for themselves where they can obtain all of the
    necessities to survive. Often, different species within the ecosystem will compete
    for the resources that a niche provides. However, certain species live well
    together—symbiotically, parasitically, or by staying out of each other's way. For
    example, lichen and moss, often the primary colonizers of a new ecosystem,
    tend to live fairly harmoniously in each other's vicinity. Let's see what happens in
    this model.

    Step 1
    Imagine the ecosystem is newly forming—the previous ecosystem has been
    destroyed by fire or flood—and the first colonizers of the successive ecosystem
    are, of course, producers. Given the two fictitious species of plants in the
    simulator, predict what will happen in this young system and record your
    prediction in the Data Table. Then run the simulator to 100 time steps and record
    the population numbers for both plants. Answer the following:
    1. What assumptions does this model make about co-dominance as well as
    the general terrain of the ecosystem?
    2. Do you find one producer to be dominant? Why might one producer be
    dominant over another?

    Step 2
    Now you'll introduce an herbivore into the environment. In theory, an herbivore
    native to the ecosystem should feed primarily on the dominant species. In this
    system, the herbivore may consume enough of the dominant species to give the
    non-dominant species a chance for proliferation and survival. Click on herbivore
    A (the rabbit) and choose "eats plant A." Predict and record what will happen to
    the population numbers in the ecosystem. Then, run the simulator and record
    your results. Answer the following:
    1. Does adding the herbivore establish a more equal field? Is one producer
    still dominant over the other? Why might one producer be dominant over
    another?
    2. If the simulation included decomposers, how would your current results
    change?
    3. How do producer population numbers with the presence of an herbivore
    compare to the primary colonizer model?

    Food Web
    Name___________________ 2
    Interactive Lab
    Ecology Lab

    Challenge
    Now that you have a sense for the interrelationships between the trophic levels,
    see how big you can make your food web and still have all of the species you
    add survive through the end of the simulation run. Keeping the ideas of
    succession and the competitive exclusion principle in mind, think of the many
    factors that may go into sustaining an ecosystem. Is there any way we can all get
    along and live side by side?

    Step 1
    First you'll run a less than "real-life" scenario. Choose only one organism from
    each trophic level and make sure that the food chain goes in a straight line from
    one trophic level to the next, i.e., Herbivore A eats Plant A, Omnivore A eats
    Herbivore A, and the Top Predator eats Omnivore A. Let Plant B survive on its
    own and see what happens. Predict whether each species will survive, and
    whether it will increase or decrease in number, as well as whether Plant B will
    survive to the end. Record your prediction in the Data Table and then run the
    simulation twice and record your data. Use X for "die out," ↑ for "increase in
    numbers," and ↓ for "decrease in numbers." Answer the following:
    1. Was your prediction correct? How did you arrive at your prediction? What
    differences were there between your prediction and the simulation?
    2. What would happen to this imaginary ecosystem if the producers were to die
    out?
    3. Did any of the species increase in number? What could account for this
    increase? Which species decreased in number and what might account for this
    decrease?
    4. Which populations would benefit the most from the presence of decomposers?

    Step 2
    Now try a more "real-life" scenario and experiment with what might happen in an
    ecosystem that is more like a web. This time click the "all on" button. The model
    shows who eats whom and the paths by which energy is transferred. Predict
    which populations will die out, increase in numbers, or decrease in numbers and
    record your predictions. Run the simulation twice and record the results in your
    Data Table. Then try to modify who eats whom in order to ensure the survival of
    all species and record what was changed in your chart. Finally, answer the
    following:1.
    1. Was your prediction correct? How did you arrive at your prediction? What
    differences were there between your prediction and the simulation?
    2. Were you able to modify the parameters so that each species survived? Explain
    how you decided what changes to make.
    3. Which way does energy flow and how does eating an organism result in energy
    transfer?

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