Download salt marsh food web assignmentOL

BACTERIA
BLUE CRABS
DIATOMS
FIDDLER CRABS
MARSH PERIWINKLE
SNAIL
CORDGRASS
DIAMONDBACK TERRAPIN
RIVER OTTER
ATLANTIC RIBBED MUSSEL
Exploring Food Webs in a Georgia Salt Marsh
Objective: You are a Marine Biologist studying a wide variety of species from
Georgia’s coastal areas. Your job is to study the diets of the organisms in this
environment. You must then construct a food web from this ecosystem that illustrates the various feeding
relationships.
Instructions:
1. Read the descriptions of the salt marsh species. Pay close attention to the information about what the species
eats and their predators.
2. Cut out the pictures of the salt marsh organisms.
3. Using the descriptions of the species and your knowledge of energy flow to construct a food web of the salt
march ecosystem. Glue the pictures onto the construction paper only AFTER you have completed laying out
your entire food web.
4. Make sure you have arrows illustrating how energy flows throughout the food web. Draw the arrows first in
pencil and then go over the arrows with marker.
5. AGAIN… Glue the pictures AFTER you have completed laying out your entire food web.
Analysis of your Georgia Salt Marsh Food Web: Use your food web to answer the following.
1. What are the decomposers?
2. What are the producers?
3. What are the consumers?
4. Identify a predator: ________________. Identify this predator’s prey: ________________.
5. Identify one food chain from your food web that is made up of four organisms.
__________________  __________________  __________________  __________________
6. Identify the herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in your food web.
HERBIVORES
OMNIVORES
CARNIVORES
7. If a virus killed a large amount of the salt marsh’s Atlantic ribbed mussels, predict what would happen to the
food web.