Field of Beans Determining the Interactions of Organisms

TEKS  8.11A – Describe producer/consumer, predator/prey and parasite/host relationships as they occur in food webs.  7.5C – Diagram the flow of energy through living systems, including food chains, food webs and energy pyramids.

Objectives  Estimate the size of various populations  Create a food web and  Construct pyramids of energy of organisms within a terrestrial ecosystem.

Field of Beans Pre-Lab Vocabulary

Producers/Autotrophs  Plants that make their own food through photosynthesis by the Sun’s energy.

Consumers/Heterotrophs  Animals that have to eat other organisms for food to get energy.

3 Types of Consumers  Herbivores – Animals that only eat plants  Omnivores – Animals that eat plants and other animals  Carnivores – Animals that only eat other animals (meat)

Decomposers/Saprotrophs  Organisms that feed on and get energy from decaying organic matter (excretment and dead organisms)  Speeds up the decaying process and puts nutrients back into the soil.

Food Chain  Simple model that shows one pathway of how matter and energy move through an ecosystem.

Energy Pyramid  An ecological pyramid that shows the flow of energy between organisms within an ecosystem.

Types of Pyramids

Trophic Level  The position in a food chain or energy pyramid that an organism occupies based on what it eats.  Only about 10% of the energy is passed on from 1 level to the next.

Transfer of Energy! 10% Rule  Producers have the most amount of energy at the bottom of the pyramid.  Top level consumers get the least amount of energy at the top of the pyramid.

Energy is transferred in the form of Heat!  Kilocalories – Unit of measurement for the transfer of heat energy in food.

Trophic levels within a food chain.  Primary consumer  Secondary consumer  Tertiary consumer  Quaternary consumer  Fifth level consumer  Sixth level consumer  …and so on… *Organisms can be more than one type of consumer depending on what all they eat.

Primary Consumer  The 1 st consumer in a food chain that eats the producer  Only gets 10% of the energy created by the producer.

Secondary Consumer  The second consumer in a food chain that eats the primary consumer.  Only gets 10% of the 10% of energy = 1%

Tertiary Consumer  3 rd consumer that eats the secondary consumer.  Only gets 10% of the 1% of the energy from the secondary consumer = 0.1%

Food Web  A complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships.  Most animals eat more than one kind of food in order to meet their energy needs therefore are part of more than one food chain.

Look at your food web like the one below

Color code your food web  Color code the arrows on your food web according to the key below.  Glue your food web into your journal and illustrate the key as shown below.

Number 1-6 and Complete the following in your journal. 1. List an organism that is a producer.  All the plants 2. Name 2 secondary consumers.  Frog, dragon fly, bird 3. Is the snake a secondary or tertiary consumer?  It’s a secondary and a tertiary consumer 4. Would the dragonfly be considered a carnivore or a herbivore?  A carnivore because it only eats other animals 5. Where would you place bacteria and fungi in this web?  Anywhere, bacteria and fungi are decomposers so they break down any decaying organic matter. 6. If the producers in this food web have 140,000 kilocalories of energy, how much would be available to the primary consumer?  14,000 (only 10%)

Part I Introducing the Field of Beans

Part 1: Introducing the Field of Beans 1. Look at the picture of the organisms that you were given and glue it into your journal. 2. Read the descriptions of each organism on the class copy of “Animal Descriptions. 3. Using each animal’s description, accurately construct a food web by connecting the organisms on your picture using arrows showing how energy is transferred from one organism another.

Color Code your arrows on your food web using the key below

Tree Map Activity  Create a tree map identifying and describing the types of organisms within food webs.  Include all the following terms and their descriptions:  Producers, Consumers and Decomposer  Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore

Part II Sampling the Field of Beans

Population Sampling  The process of taking a small group of organisms that is representative of the entire population. The sample must have sufficient size to warrant statistical analysis.  This is how biologists estimate the population of different species in an area.

Part II: Sampling The Field of Beans Random Sampling A method of population sampling where sample sites are selected at random to be counted. *Each square represents a sample size in an area that is 100 square miles

Part II: Radom Sampling the Field of Beans  To the right is an area of land behind our school. Rather than send 100 students out to count the organisms in the entire area, the teacher sent 5 to randomly sample the population. Students counted the organisms in the labeled sections.

Pre-Lab questions Complete the following in your journal. 1. Determine and record the size of the population using random sampling by counting the organisms in the bolded areas.  Each dot represents an organism

Pre-Lab Question #1  There are 9 organisms in the 5 sample sites.  9/5 = 1.8 organisms  Sample site = 1/36 (there are 36 blocks in the entire area)  1.8 x 36 = 64.8 organisms total

Pre-Lab Question #2  Compare your estimation to the actual size of the population.  Count everyone of the dots in the entire area.  There are a total of 40 organisms. Our estimation was more than the actual #.

Pre-Lab Question #3  List at least 2 ways to improve this method of sampling.  Increase the number of samples taken.  Increase the area covered by each sample site.  Spread the samples out across the site more evenly.

Pre-Lab Question #4  In a forest that measures 5 miles by 5 miles, a sample was taken to count the number of red oak trees in the forest. The number of trees counted in the grid is shown. The grids where the survey was taken were chosen randomly. Determine how many red oak tress are in this forest using the random sampling technique.

Pre-Lab Question #4 con’t

Pre-AP: Field of Beans Sampling Lab Activity  Materials  Bag of Beans  Organism Identification cards  10x10 cm index card  1x1 meter butcher paper  Calculator  Data Table 1

Procedures 1. Carefully spread out the beans in your baggie onto your piece of butcher paper as evenly as possible.  This is your “Field of Beans” 2. Take the index card and place it onto a section of your butcher paper covering your beans. 3. Trace around the index card to outline the area it covers. 4. Remove the index card and count the number of each organism within the area and record it in your Data Table 1.  Use the Organism Identification Cards to identify what organism each bean represents.

NOTE!!! *1 ant bean = 250 ants ** 1 plant bean = 200 plants ***1 grasshopper bean = 100 grasshoppers

Procedures Con’t  Repeat steps 2-4 on different sections of the butcher paper without overlapping.  Each section represents a sample site.  Try to get at least six sample sites completed.  Once you have counted and recorded all of the organisms in each of the sample sites, find the AVERAGES of each organism and record it in Data Table 1 under “Avg”..  Multiple your averages for each organism by 100 and record that in Data Table 1 under “Total Number x 100”

Field of Beans Sampling Activity  Field of Beans Class Activity  Complete this activity as a class instead of individual groups and provide the students the actual number of organisms table on the next slide

Part III – Constructing the Pyramids  Energy Pyramids

Pyramid of Numbers vs. Pyramid of Biomass  Pyramid of numbers simply shows the total number of organisms in each population.  Pyramid of biomass is based on the total amount of biomass (living matter) of each population.

Biomass  The total mass of a specific organism in a given area or ecosystem.  Mass of living things in an area

Complete the following Pre-Lab questions in your science journal #1. Draw an energy pyramid to represent the food chain below. You may draw a triangular pyramid or a pyramid composed of rectangles.

#1 – Your pyramid should look like either one of these.

Pre-Lab Question #2  Draw a food chain to represent the food pyramid below.

#2 – Your food chain should look like this.

Pre-Lab Question #3  Uses the data table below to create a pyramid of numbers.

#3 – Your pyramid of numbers should look something like this.

Pre-lab Question #4  Use the same data table to create a pyramid of biomass.

#4 – Your pyramid of biomass should look like this.

Part III – Constructing the Pyramids  Materials:  Data Table 2  Highlighter  Calculator  Procedures:  Record the total # of organisms that you calculated in Date Table 1 into Data Table 2 under the column labeled “Total Number”.

Procedures Con’t  Using your food web, locate a food chain that consists of at least 5 trophic levels.  Draw the food chain in your journal.  Using your food chain, your are going to construct two pyramids. The first is based on the # of organisms you counted.  Using a highlighter, highlight the rows that contain the organisms that you selected in your food chain on Data Table 2.

Pyramid of Numbers  Construct a pyramid of numbers by starting with the bottom layer, in this case, the producers in your food chain.  Draw the bottom layer of the pyramid as a rectangle.  Continue to draw the remaining layers proportional to the previous layer according to the Number of each organism.

Calculating Biomass  Look at Data Table 2 and multiply the “Total Number” of each organism with the Mass given on the table. Biomass = Number in population x Average mass of organism  Record the Biomass of each organism in Data Table 2 under “Biomass”

Pyramid of Biomass  Construct a pyramid of biomass starting with the bottom layer.  Continue to draw the remaining layers proportional to the previous layer according to the Biomass of each organism.  Compare your two pyramids.

Example Data

Food Chain  5 Trophic Levels 1. Cacti 2. Grasshopper 3. Grasshopper mouse 4. Owl 5. Snake

Pyramid of Numbers Total Numbers: 0 – rattlesnakes 20 – owls 30 – mice 8000 – grasshoppers 22,000 - cacti, trees, and plants

Pyramid of Biomass

Conclusion Questions Answer the conclusion questions in your journal using COMPLETE Sentences.

#1  What type of biome does the organisms in your food web most likely belong to?  The organisms in this food web belong to a desert or grassland biome.

#2  What type of adaptations do the organisms in your food web have to have to be able to survive in this type of biome?  The organisms must be able to adapt to dry conditions

#3  What organism(s) is/are the top energy level in your food web?  The hawk, coyote, and bobcat are the top energy level in the food web.

#4  Which organism(s) has the most numerous sources of food?  The bobcat, coyote and hawk have the most food sources.

#5  List any organism that has a single food source, and make a prediction as to what would happen if the food source for the organism you listed is removed.  Ant, Grasshopper, Kangaroo rat, Tortoise.  They would die of starvation or have to migrate somewhere else if their food source was removed.

#6  When plants or animals die, how are those nutrients recycled back into the ecosystem?  Decomposers break down the dead materials so that the nutrients can be used by other organisms.

#7  What happens to the amount of energy/biomass transferred from one type of organism to the next in a food chain or energy pyramid?  The amount of energy/biomass decreases. The top of the food chain or energy pyramid contains the LEAST amount of energy/ biomass.

#8  What is the problem with the energy pyramid below? What would happen to the organisms in the food chain?

#8 Answer  The burrowing owl # is greater that the grasshopper mouse #. Therefore this food chain would not survive.

#9  Describe how a natural disaster, like a drought or grass fire, would affect an herbivore, carnivore, and an omnivore in the ecosystem.  Initially, the herbivores would be impacted. Their primary food source would disappear or go dormant. The herbivores would then have to migrate or die.  The carnivores that feed off of the herbivores would have to find other sources of food.  Since the omnivores have less food they would have to compete more with the carnivores for food.

#10  To the right are the actual number of organisms in your ecosystem. How accurate were your totals that you calculated? Explain 2 things that could have been done to improve your sampling accuracy.