Name: Nayelly Coronado

PT 7.3: Trophic Levels

____________________________

Learning Target
(HS-LS2-4) I can use mathematical representations to support claims for the cycling
of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.

Guiding Question
How are matter and energy transferred in an ecosystem?

Task 1 - Vocabulary Review

DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions. Refer to your PT 7.3 notes for the answers.
1. A producer which is also known as an ___________ can produce their own autotrophs
food and gain energy from the sun.

2. A consumer which is also known as a ___________ consumes other plants heterotrophs

and animals for energy.

3. This consumer only eats meat. carnivores

4. This consumer only eats plants. Herbivores

5. This consumer eats plants and animals. omnivore

6. A ___________ kills and eats other animals. These animals that are eaten predator
are known as ___________.
prey

7. A ___________ _______ shows how producers and consumers depend on Food web
one another for food.

8. In a food web, the arrows point TO the ___________ and AWAY from the consumer
organism being ___________.
consumed

9. A ___________ ___________shows the levels of consumption among Trophic pyramid

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 producers and consumers.

10. ___________ create their own food. Producers

11. What do primary consumers eat? producers

12. What are primary consumers known as in an ecosystem? Herbivores and

omnivores

13. What do secondary consumers eat? Primary

consumers

14. Secondary Consumers are the ___________ and ___________ of the Carnivores
ecosystem.
omnivores

15. What do tertiary consumers eat? Secondary and

primary

16. Tertiary consumers are the _____ ___________ of the ecosystem. Top predators

17. A trophic pyramid shows the flow of ___________ between organisms in energy
an ecosystem.

18. How much energy is transferred between each trophic level? Only 10%

19. A ___________ shows the amount of mass that each trophic level needs Biomass
in order to support the organism above it. pyramid

20. On the trophic pyramid below, label each level of the pyramid and the energy transfers.

Trophic Level % Energy Transfer

1 Tertiary A 0.1%
consumers

2 Secondary B 1%
consumers

3 Primary C 10%
consumers

4 Producers D 100&

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 Answer questions 9-11 based on the food
pyramid to the left.

21. Which organism is a producer in this food

pyramid? Which are consumers?
Plants are the producers of the food
pyramid.

22. Where does the producer get its energy?

From the sun, soil, water, and carbon
dioxide.

23. State which organism in this food chain is a

predator and which organism is a prey.
(hint they might be both!)
The hawk would be the predator for both
the snakes and the rabbits.

Task 2 - Predator/Prey Interactions

DIRECTIONS: For this task you will explore a simulation of predators and prey.
1. Open this simulator: Ecology Lab. You may want to split your screen so you can look at
this document while running the simulation.
2. The simulation will start with Plant A and Plant B highlighted. Click on the rabbit and
then select “eats plant A.” Run the simulation until it reaches 100 days. Enter the final
totals of each organism's population in Table 1 below.
a. You can see the population numbers by hovering your mouse cursor over the line on the graph.
3. Click “Presets.” Click on the rabbit and then select “eats plant B.” Run the simulation until
it reaches 100 days. Enter the final totals in Table 1 below.
4. Click “Presets” again. Click the rabbit and then select BOTH “eats plant A” & “eats plant
B.” Run the simulation until it reaches 100 days. Enter the final totals in Table I below.
Table I
Plant A final Plant B final Rabbit final
population population population

Rabbit (eats only plant A) 3335 4998 2055

Rabbit (eats only plant B) 0 10,000 0

Rabbit (eats both Plant A & B) 0 3333 6667

5. Click “Presets.” Click on the rabbit and then select “eats plant A.” Click on the snail and
then select “eats plant B.” Click on the deer and then select BOTH “eats plant A” & “eats
plant B.” Run the simulation until it reaches 100 days. Describe what happened to both

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 plants and the 3 herbivores.
One of the plant increases in population then goes down a bit while the other
completely goes down. Two of the animals no longer have population and the other
one increases.

6. Click “Presets.” Select “plant C.” Click on the snail and then select BOTH “eats plant A” &
“eats plant B.” Click on the squirrel and select “eats plant A,” “eats plant B,” “eats plant C,”
and “eats snails.” Describe what happens to the squirrel in this setting. Fill in Table II.
The squirrel population increases in this type of setting.

Table II
Plant A Plant B Plant C Snail Squirrel

Final Population 2 5006 0 0 14971

7. Click “All Off.” Select plant A, the rabbit that “eats plant A,” and the wolf that “eats
herbivore A.” Run the simulation until it reaches 100 days. Describe what happened in
this ecosystem then enter the population numbers of each organism at the days
specified in Table III below.
The top predator decreases in population as days go on, the rabbits population
decreases to the middle of the graph while plant A has the higher population between
all three.

Table III
Day 5 Day 20 Day 50 Day 100

Plant A population 3824 3850 4547 4980

Rabbit population 3114 2306 1801 1672

Wolf population 13 41 126 165

8. Describe the relationship between the populations of each of the organisms in this
ecosystem based on all the simulations you just completed. (minimum of 5 sentences!)
Plants are the population that usually last longer than the others and its doesn’t
decreases as much like the others. Herbivore population decreases and increase a bit
each time as days goes on and based on, depending also on which predator is in the
ecosystem. The top predator usually decreases in population withing this ecosystem.
The less food it has then the less chance it has of surviving. When the wolf’s were
eating the rabbits they decreased in population.