The Food Chain
In a food web, where does all of the energy originally come from?
The Sun.
I am a type of fungus that you often see growing on a dead log in the forest or a piece of old bread in your kitchen. I don't use sunlight to make food. What am I?
a mushroom (or mold)
True or False: The amount of matter on Earth is always changing as organisms grow and decompose
False. (Matter is conserved; it simply changes form or moves from one part of the ecosystem to another.)
How many wolves were released into YNP in 1995?
14
What do you call a organism that consumes other organisms to survive?
a consumer(s).
An organism that produces its own food, usually using sunlight, is called this.
a producer or plant
I am a common garden creature with a long, segmented body and no legs. I eat dead plants and leave behind nutrient-rich waste called castings. What am I?
an earthworm
When an animal eats a plant for energy, what happens to the matter from the plant?
It moves into the animal's body (or is released as waste/gas).
How did the Elk change the population of beavers?
by eating all the aspen and willow
flightless aquatic birds found exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. What consumer is this?
a penguin.
An animal that hunts and eats other animals is called this, while the animal being hunted is called this.
Predator and prey.
We are so tiny that billions of us can fit in a single gram of soil, and you need a microscope to see us. We are one of the most important chemical decomposers on Earth. What are we?
Bacteria
After a log decomposes in a forest, does the matter from the log disappear or move somewhere else?
It moves somewhere else (into the air as gas, or into the soil as nutrients).
what year were the wolves released?
1995
large, semi-aquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa
hippopotamus
If a disease wiped out all the grass in an ecosystem, what would likely happen to the population of rabbits and other herbivores?
They would decrease (go down/die out) due to lack of food.
My larvae are called maggots, and my adult form loves to buzz around garbage and dead things. We are insects that help break down matter. What am I?
a fly
A huge tree grows from a tiny seed in a forest. Where does almost all the mass that makes the tree so big come from?
The air (specifically, the carbon dioxide from the air).
What is the current population of wolves in Yellowstone National Park?
around 500 wolves
🐸 What animal is this?
a tree frog
A hawk eats a snake, which ate a mouse, which ate a seed. The hawk is at the very top of this energy path. What is the hawk's role in this specific sequence?
the top (or apex) predator.
I am a living thing (an organism) that gets my energy by breaking down dead plants and animals. I help return nutrients to the soil. What word describes my job in the ecosystem?
a Decomposer
If we put a rabbit in a sealed glass box with air, water, and some plants, and gave it sunlight, would the total mass of everything inside the box ever change as the rabbit lives and grows?
No, the total mass would stay the same because matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed in form.
What year had the largest population of wolves in Yellowstone?
2016
large, deep-sea invertebrates with eight arms and two long feeding tentacles that feature suckers with sharp, serrated rings. They have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. What consumer is this?
a giant squid.