- 1. Kelleigh HuberBiology I Period 4 The Frog
2. Niche of the Bullfrog Bullfrog; Rana catesbeiana
- Bullfrogs live in ponds, rivers, and streams that have
slow-moving water. They do not necessarily have to live in the
water, but they leave near the waters edge, for protection from
predators and for egg laying. Jumping into nearby water acts as an
escape route from certain animals. Bullfrogs specifically are more
active at night.
- The frog depends on a couple different things for food. Frogs
eat mainly insects, but their diet expands up to small birds,
turtles, and even snakes. Great Blue Herons and raccoons, along
with big snakes depend on frogs for survival.
3. Niche of the Frog (Continued)
- Frogs are amphibians and contain webbed appendages. They can
grow to be about 3-6 inches in body length, and then an additional
7-10 inches for their legs. Their eardrums are located right behind
the eye.
- Frogs have an axial skeleton (the skull and vertebrae but they
lack ribs.
- Bullfrogs live longer in warmer weather, and like to keep
moist.
- Bullfrogs are also useful to humans as a minor food source,
mainly for people in the southwestern part of the United States.
Frog legs are usually the legs of the American Bullfrog.
4. Reproduction of the Bullfrog
- Frogs mate in the spring, and they rarely interact with other
frogs except for mating.
- They lay about 20,000 eggs at a time, and they are laid in the
water. The eggs attach to plants located under the water.
- Eggs soon hatch into tadpoles, and remain tadpoles for about
4-6 months, growing about 6 inches, although this process could
last much longer. Depending on how long the tadpole remains a
tadpole will determine how big the adult frog will be.
- Both the eggs and tadpoles are protected from predators in the
water, because they taste bad.
5. Food Chain of A Frog The role of the worms is to act as a
source of food for baby birds. Worms are usually decomposers,
breaking down things such as bacteria and plants, and returning the
nutrients to the soil. Birds are the next link, they eat the worms
and are omnivores, because they eat plants and animals. Frogs are
carnivores, they only eat meat, and Great Blue Herons are
omnivores, and are the fourth consumer of the chain. Primary
Consumer Omnivore (Worm) Secondary Consumer Omnivore (Bird)
Tertiary Consumer Carnivore (Frog) Consumer Omnivore (Great Blue
Heron) 6. Food Web of A Bullfrog Decomposer Producer Omnivore
Carnivore Producer Carnivore Herbivore Carnivore Carnivore A Food
Web shows how all of the given species are related in an ecosystem,
depending on consumers, producers, and decomposers. 7. Stream
Quality Data & Analysis
- The stream conditions of Powdermill Run were quite
healthy.
- The number of organisms in each class that were found indicates
that the stream was healthy. If you compare the numbers that were
found for each, you can tell that the stream was not polluted and
that many organisms survive in it.
- The stream conditions affect my organism because the water was
cool and clear, so frogs would be able to swim and as tadpoles they
would be able to eat and breathe.
8. Water Testing Data & Analysis
- The health of the ecosystem is dependent upon factors such as
oxygen, phosphate and nitrate levels, and the pH level. These
affect the ecosystem by determining the quality of the stream, and
therefore the number of organisms present in or near the
stream.
- Oxygen should be a middle to high number, because the more
dissolved oxygen the better for organisms. The pH level is supposed
to be neutral, about a 6.5 or 7. Phosphates and nitrates should
remain 0 or very low.
- Animals that live near the stream would be better off than
animals near the marsh or mine because the quality of the stream is
much better. There is more oxygen present, and there is little
pollution.
9. Water Testing Data & Analysis (Continued)
- Temperature and turbidity also affect the ecosystem in many
ways. Temperature, depending on how cool, could contain more oxygen
in it than warm waters. Powdermill Run contained more dissolved
oxygen because the water was cooler and the stream is shaded by
trees.
- Turbidity affects the ecosystem because turbidity is the
clarity of the water. If the water is cloudy, many organisms will
suffer. Organisms that have gills could end up with clogged gills
and therefore be unable to breathe. Also it could affect how much
food organisms eat because certain prey would be unable to be
caught and consumed due to the cloudy water.
10. Positive and Negative Factors
- . The current conditions of the stream, mine and marsh waters
would affect frogs in many ways. Mine waters would affect them
because they live near the water s edge, so the acid and orange
color would negatively affect them. The stream would positively
affect the frog s offspring because they would have a healthy
environment with lots of dissolved oxygen and a low turbidity.
- The pollution of PA streams negatively impacts the riparian
zone. It affects the turbidity of the water, the pH, and even the
temperature. By doing this, it affects not only the organisms that
live in or near the water, but also the predators that want to hunt
these organisms. If the number of surviving offspring from a frog
is low, the birds and snakes who hunt the frogs later on will
eventually die off from starvation because there are not enough
frogs to be consumed. All of the problems could be due to simple
pollution in the water , and we can help this pollution problem. By
not littering and reducing the amount of fossil fuels, we can do a
lot to help the riparian zone.
11. Conclusion
- I learned that everything in the ecosystem depends on specific
little things. For example, the pH level in a stream can make all
the difference, because it can affect organisms that are living in
the stream, but then it can affect the organisms that are their
predators too.
- While researching the frog, I found it interesting that a
simple frog could make all the difference in an ecosystem. Frogs
are an important part of food chains and food webs, and without
them, others would suffer.
- I would like to research pollution a little further.
12. Work Cited 1.) Frog .Encycolpedia
Americana.http://go.grolier.com 2.) Bullfrog; Rana Catesbeiana
.Organism Menu
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bullfrog/htm 3.)Pa among
the top states in tackling waterway pollution: Its No. 2 in
waterway sections restored to health. Tennessee is
first.TimesLeader.Sweeny, Rory http://find.galegroup.com