CREATING CHAINS AND WEBS TO MODEL ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS OVERVIEW This hands-on activity supports the HHMI short film

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CREATING CHAINS AND WEBS TO MODEL ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPSOVERVIEW This hands-on activity supports the HHMI short film TheGuide and the 2014 Holiday Lectures on Science: Biodiversity in theAge of Humans. You will identify producers and consumers in thesavanna ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. Using aset of “Gorongosa cards,” you will then create a food chain to showthe flow of energy in that system, introduce an ecological force ordisturbance (e.g., fire), and predict how that force would impactenergy flow. Lastly, you will construct a more complex model of theflow of energy by depicting multiple relationships in a food weband again make a prediction about the impact of introducing anecological force. INSTRUCTIONS All food chains start with aproducer such as a plant, which converts light energy from the suninto a more useable chemical energy that is transferred toherbivores and then to carnivores. You will receive a set of cardsthat depict some common animals, plant types, and ecological forcesor disturbances from the savanna ecosystem in Gorongosa. Use thecards to build models and answer questions as directed on thisworksheet. After building a food chain or food web with the cards,record your version by writing the organism names in theappropriate spaces on the worksheet and connecting them witharrows. Part 1: Identifying relationships and creating a food chainSeparate the ecological disturbance cards from the organism cards,and then sort the organism cards into two piles that representproducers and consumers. 1. How many producers do you have?_________ 2. How many consumers do you have? _________ 3. A foodchain is a model that identifies the feeding relationships and theflow of energy in an ecosystem. Select a producer and a consumerfrom your piles, then fill in the blanks below and select whichmodel (A or B) correctly shows the flow of energy. A._______________ à _______________ or B. _______________ à_______________ 4. Justify why you chose A or B as the correctmodel. 5. Select four cards to create a food chain, starting with aproducer. Label the trophic level of each organism in your foodchain as follows: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer,tertiary consumer. Record your food chain in the space below usingspecies names and arrows.