Food Web Construction
Task:
You are to construct an accurate food web using the
organisms given to you and then discuss the position
of each in the ecosystem. Finally you will explain the
effects of removing or altering the number of any
specific organism within the web.
Materials:
•
•
•
One set of organism cards
Glue or Glue sticks
Large Poster Paper
•
•
•
Scissors
Marker
Pen/pencil
Procedure
1. Cut out each of the organism picture squares representing the organisms you
will have in your food web.
2. Draw a large Trophic Pyramid on your poster paper so that it reaches from
the tip to the bottom and covers the entire paper. Correctly identify and
label each of the levels in the pyramid.
3. Arrange each of the organism cards into a logical food web that matches the
descriptions given for each of the organisms. Be sure that you place each
organism into the proper trophic level based on their food source listed.
4. Use your desk as a draft before you glue anything, but once the organisms
are all in place, paste them down to the poster on top of the trophic pyramid
& draw the arrows in the correct direction showing the flow of energy and
nutrients.
5. Show your completed web to your teacher. Your teacher will exterminate
one of the species of his choosing from your web… OH NO!!!
6. On a separate sheet of paper, write a full paragraph [in proper sentences
and grammar] that discusses the impacts of the removal of this species.
How will their death affect the animals who feed on them? How will it affect
the species that were preyed upon by them? Haw far will the impact reach
out into the food web? Will other species be affected?
Mouse
Rat
Owl
Hawk
Duck
Sandpiper
Sparrow
Shrew
Small Crustacean
Eats:
Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants
Grasshoppers
Snails
Eats:
Grasshoppers
Snails
Eats:
Salt water algae
Fish
Heron
Grasshopper
Eats:
Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae
Eats:
Fish
Eats:
Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae:
Salt marsh plants
Snail
Energy Source:
Sunlight
CO2
Water
Energy Source:
Sunlight
CO2
Water
Eats:
Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae
Eats:
Grasshoppers
Snails
Salt marsh plants
Eats:
Rats
Sparrows
Ducks
Sandpipers
Eats:
Sparrows
Grasshoppers
Snails
Salt marsh plants
Eats:
Crustaceans
Salt marsh plants
Salt water algae
Grasshoppers
Snails
Eats:
Shrews
Mice
Rats
Eats:
Crustaceans
Salt water algae
Mouse
Rat
Owl
Hawk
Duck
Sandpiper
Tringa glareola
Sparrow
Shrew
Small Crustacean
Fish
Heron
Grasshopper
Salt water algae
Salt marsh plants
Snail