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Populations and Ecosystems

Welcome new park ranger! As we begin our training together, remember that this is the ONLY copy of the packet that you will receive – don’t lose it – you won’t get another. Put your name on it in pen.

Unit Big Idea:Organisms live in different ecosystems, get energy in different ways, and interact with both other organisms of the same kind, and with other organisms. Groups of organisms interact with one another.

Populations and Ecosystems Unit Learning Goals:By the end of the unit, you will be able to: Explain energy movement in systems Predict future events by using ideas like evolution, equilibrium, and energy Explain how organisms interact with ecosystems to create balance or imbalance and how they effect other living

things, Describe how changes on Earth affect living things. Explain how cycles on Earth continually move energy and matter. Compare and contrast between producers, and consumers. Explain how sunlight is the source of energy for organisms. Describe how changes to environmental conditions can affect the survival of organisms and species.

• Before we really begin this unit, take a minute and read through both lists of vocabulary words.• As you come across words you have already heard of highlight or underline the words. • Put an asterisk (*) by them if you think you can already define them.

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This packet belongs to:

Vocabulary Words Group 2: New Words You Will Hear

1. Deciduous2. Coniferous3. Tropical4. Temperate5. Savanna6. Desert7. Tundra8. Food chain9. Food web10. Hare11. Lynx

Vocabulary Words Group 1: Words You Should Understand & Be Able to Use

1. Ecology2. Biotic3. Abiotic4. Population5. Community6. Ecosystem7. Biosphere8. Prey9. Predator10. Biomes11. Carrying Capacity12. Limiting Factor13. Competition

14. Producer15. Consumer16. Decomposer

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Habitats/ Ecosystems

Step 4: What made each ecosystem different? (Hint: what biotic or abiotic factors made them unique?

Step 5: Based on this, how do you think we classify/organize or group ecosystems?

Step 1: Look back at the sheets you filled out during Outdoor Ed (both the abiotic and biotic factors at camp, and the notes you took on the videos while at school).

Step 2: List some of the ecosystems you looked at:

Step 3: What did all of these ecosystems have in common? (Hint: what biotic or abiotic factors did all of them have?)

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Ecosystems of My Adopt a Country

Ecosystem What it looks like/ What it is

Temperate Deciduous Forest

Coniferous Forest

Tropical Rain Forest

Temperate Grassland

Savanna

Desert

Polar Tundra

Alpine Tundra

Stream

River

Pond

Lake

Marsh

Swamp

Ocean

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1. What was your adopt-a-country?

2. Which of these ecosystems does your country have? (List as many as possible).

Living Things Get Energy

1) What do all living things need to survive?

2) Why do we need to eat?

3) Why don’t plants need to eat? Where do they get energy?

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Consumers

We can sort consumers into different groups based on what they eat.

If they eat only plants we call them ____________________________. Give some examples:

If they eat only animals we call them __________________________. Give some examples:

If they eat both plants and animals we call them ________________________. Give some examples:

If they eat dead plants and animals we call them ________________________. Give some examples:

Living things can be organized into three groups by how they get energy.

A producer is-

Producers get their energy from:

A consumer is-

Consumers get their energy from:

A Decomposer is-

Decomposers get their energy from:

Examples of producers:

Examples of consumers:

Examples of decomposers:

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Food Chains and Food Webs

This type of diagram is called a food chain.1) What do the arrows show? Why do they

only go one way?

2) What is helpful about a food chain?

3) What isn’t quite right about a food chain?

This type of diagram is called a food web.1) What do the arrows show? Why do they only go one

way?

2) How is it better than a food chain?

3) How is it not as good as the food chain?

4) List one simple food chain found in this web.

Both of these diagrams contain plants. Neither one shows where the plants get their energy. What could you add to both to show where plants get their energy?

Food Web

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Food Webs on Earth

1) For the food web to the left, list one food chain that includes producers and consumers.

2) What type of ecosystem might this food web happen in?

3) When the animal eats another animal, the food is either used or stored in its tissues. Each animal only gets energy from the energy stored in the tissues of their food. Which animal would have more energy stored in its tissues: an owl or a mushroom?

4) Why?

5) For the food web to the left, list one food chain that includes producers and consumers.

6) What type of ecosystem might this food web happen in?

7) When the animal eats another animal, the food is either used or stored in its tissues. Each animal only gets energy from the energy stored in the tissues of their food. Which animal would have more energy stored in its tissues: a trout or a crayfish?

8) Why?

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Predator Prey Relationships

All of the interactions we have looked at so far involve one organism eating another. When we talk about this type of interaction we use special terms to denote either the eater or the organism that gets eaten.

A _______________________________ eats all or part of another organism.

A _______________________________ gets killed and eaten by another organism.

A predator needs to be able to catch their prey to survive.

Give some examples of advantages or strategies that predators use to catch their prey:

Prey have to avoid being eaten in order to survive.

Some methods that prey use to avoid being eaten include:

___________________________ blending into the background such as:

___________________________ spraying defensive chemicals or being poisonous when eaten such as:

___________________________ having colors or patters that predators associate with pain, illness, or unpleasant experiences; most commonly bright shades of red, yellow, orange, black and white such as:

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Organisms and Their EnvironmentWe have talked about how organisms interact with each other and the types of environments that living things can live in. Now lets look at how organisms interact with their environment.

A Population is:

How Many Bears Can Survive In This Forest?

In this activity, you will be a Black Bear who is scavenging for food. You will have a den (envelope) with your seat number on it. There will be lots of colored cards that represent different kinds of food. Your mission is to collect a variety of food and take it back to your den.

Rules:1) Bears don’t run to their food, they scavenge and look around by walking. If you run or otherwise

move in an unsafe way you’ll be confined to your den for a 2 minute penalty.2) Bears don’t touch other bears while looking for food. If you touch another bear you will get a 2

minute penalty at your den.3) Bears will only gather one food item at a time. You will return the food card to your den and put

it in the envelope. The envelope must be touching a wall at all times. Really, bears just eat food where they find it, but you don’t eat paper cards and we want to know later how much food you gathered.

4) You may not touch any one else’s envelope- you will instantly catch a disease and be considered a dead bear.

5) There are 3 bears with special circumstances. One is a young male who has not yet found his own territory. Last week he met with a larger male bear in the big bear’s territory and before he could get away, he was hurt. He has a broken leg. This bear can only move around by hoping.

This bear will be played by _______________________________________.

6) Another bear is a young bear who investigated a porcupine too closely and was blinded by the quills. This bear will hunt blindfolded.

This bear will be played by _______________________________________.

7) A third bear is a mother who has two fairly small cubs. She must collect twice as much food to survive and feed the cubs. She still follows all gathering rules.

This bear will be played by _______________________________________.

Name__________________________ Date________ Hr__

My Data N B I M P Total W

Pounds

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Bear Food Data

Special Case Seat Number Food Gathered (in pounds) Survived? Y/N

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Bears and Limiting FactorsWhat happened to the one legged bear?

What happened to the blind bear?

What happened to the mama bear?

Would she have survived if she was only feeding herself?

If she only had enough food to survive or feed the babies which is she more likely to choose? Why?

Let’s calculate the food you got.Type of Food Pounds of this type Total Pounds of

FoodPercentage of this type

Nuts

Berries

Insects

Meat

Plants

How does that compare to real black bears and what they need in a 10 day period?

Nuts 20 pounds 25%

Berries and Fruit 20 pounds 25%

Insects 12 pounds 15%

Meat 8 pounds 10%

Plants 20 pounds 25%

How healthy do you think you would be if you were a bear? Why?

How do you think a bear’s needs a different from a human’s? The same?

How many bears survived from this class?

What percentage of the bears is this?

Why can’t all of the bears survive?

Which of your vocabulary words does this explain?

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What other types of factors might limit a bear’s population? How will each limit the population?

“Oh Deer” Activity

Brainstorm things that Deer need to survive:

We’ll need to pick 3 to focus on through our discussion.

We pick ___________________________ ,__________________________ and _________________

We will represent these with the following colors:

In this activity, you will be either a deer who is looking for resources, or a resource. You will get to pick which thing you are (resource) or which you are looking for (deer) each round. There will be one line of deer and another of resources. You’ll turn your backs on each other, pick up a sign of what you are representing/ looking for, then when the teacher says “go”, the deer will WALK over to the resource side to try to tag someone that matches them. If a deer gets what they are looking for, they survive as deer and reproduce (bring the resource they tagged with them to be a deer). If deer don’t get what they are looking for, they die and become a resource.

Predators eat deer. They stay hidden in their den until the teacher says go. Then, they may tag one deer per round ONLY while the deer is on its way to a resource. Once a deer has a resource, it is safe. If a predator successfully tags a deer, it survives and reproduces (the deer becomes a predator). If the predator does not tag a deer, it dies and becomes a resource.

Rules:1) There will be no running. If lightning (a teacher) decides that you were running, she will strike

you and you’ll be dead, becoming a resource.2) Deer may TAG a resource that matches them. Tagging is a gentle touch on the shoulder or arm.

Lightning will strike deer who hit or tag inappropriately.3) If you choose not to play, you may be a data collector or another teacher-assigned job.

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Year # of Deer # of Predators

Year # of Deer # of Predators

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1. After you play, record your data below.2. Then, graph the data on the next page.3. Why does the number of deer suddenly go down?

4. When the number of deer is low, what happens to the number of predators? 6. If the predators catch a disease what might happen to the number of deer?

7. A few years after the predators got sick, what will happen to the amount of food? 8. What might happen if a lot of humans moved into the area?

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The Population of Deer Over Time

Time (Years)Key

Deer

Predators

After an event like a forest fire:9. What happens to the resources (food, water, shelter)? Why? 10. What happens to the number of deer? Why? 11. What happens to the predators? Why?

12. Is it normal for the number of deer to go up and down? Why/ Why not?

13. How would you know if the population was out of balance?

14. So long as there were enough resources would we ever run out of deer or predators? Why or why not?

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Hare and Lynx Population Data

Some very famous data that allowed scientists to discover the pattern that you have noticed. Fur traders reported how many Canadian Lynx and how many Snowshoe Hares they captured over lots of years. It allowed them to see the following data:

1. What type of ecosystem do you think the hare and lynx live in?

2. What types of limiting factors do you think there may be in this ecosystem?

3. Once the population of hare goes up, what happens to the population of lynx?

4. Once the population of lynx goes up, what happens to the population of hare?

5. Is there a constant amount of either hare or lynx? Why?

6. Most living things produce more offspring than will survive. For example, a female frog might lay hundreds of eggs in a small pond. In a few months, the population of frogs in the pond will be about the same as it was the year before. Why won’t the pond be overrun with frogs?

7. Why does the mother frog lay so many eggs?

8. What types of resources can be a liming factor to the frog population?

9. What is the carrying capacity of the frog population?

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1. Competition is when more than one organism tries to get the same resources. What organisms does a frog egg compete with?

2. What is the frog competing for?

3. Why isn’t there enough for all the organisms?

4. Humans have put salmon into Lake Michigan for fisherman to catch. They are a large predator that eats lots of little bait fish. What might this do to the ecosystem?

Organization and the Environment

The environment can be arranged into different levels that make sense in what looks like a crazy mess.

1. The first level is the individual organism such as _____________________________________

2. The second level is the population such as:

Individuals in a population compete with each other for:

3. The third level is a community such as:

Populations in a community depend on each other for:

4. The fourth level is an ecosystem such as:

This includes the __________________________ and the abiotic factors of a region.

5. The fifth level is the biosphere. This includes all of the _________________________ on Earth.The extends from the bottom of the ocean, to high in the air where plant spores drift. We study the biosphere to learn about how organisms interact with the abiotic environment including the atmosphere, water, soil, and rocks.