Download Forest Ecosystem Worksheet - teacher version

Teacher Version with answers
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Forest Ecosystems Worksheet
This worksheet is for the students to complete after their visit to Wadsworth
Mansion based on what they learned on the walk on the mansion grounds.
It is helpful if the students are reminded that a healthy ecosystem is one that
has a variety of producers, consumers & decomposers. These terms may also
need to be reviewed.
Please answer the questions below based on your walk in the woods near
Wadsworth Mansion. (Answers should not be about creatures you saw during
the session at the vernal pool.)
1. What producers did you enjoy seeing, touching & smelling? Which on way
your favorite and why? (Producers are plants. They produce food energy from
the sun via photosynthesis.)
Spicebush – yellow flower, spicy smell, likes wet soil
Skunk cabbage – hooded flower, skunky smell
Black birch –wintergreen smell
White pine – pine scent, 5 needles in bundle & 5 letters in W-H-I-T-E
Stripped maple – stripped bark, often with deer browse, leaves emerging
Red Maple – trees are either mostly male or female, red flowers in spring
White or paper birch – white, peeling bark
Black cherry – lizard scale bark, bitter smell
American Beech – elephant leg trunk, can eat the leaves
Trout lily – leaf green with brown speckles like a trout, leaves edible, yellow
flower, leaves disappear by mid summer
Garlic Mustard – invasive species that spreads, garlicy smell, edible
2. Give an example of an adaptation that one of these producers had.
Skunk cabbage – flowers bloom early and are stinky to attract early
pollinators, inside of flower 10-20 degrees warmer than air
Evergreens – year round leaves, photosynthesis even in winter
Black birch –winter green oil in twigs give deer a stomachache (not eat)
Trout lily – leaves out & blossoms early, leaves disappear back into earth
3. The biggest producers you saw were trees. Even if you do not know the
names of all the trees, what could you look at to tell that the different trees
apart in the woods by Wadsworth Mansion?
Variety of bark textures, leaf shapes, tree shapes, seeds/nuts, branch patterns
Everyone Outside (www.EveryoneOutside.org) Curriculum v. 4-28-14, p. 1
Teacher Version with answers
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4. Do you think there are a wide variety of trees in the woods near Wadsworth
Mansion? Does this suggest that this is a healthy or unhealthy ecosystem?
Yes, see above. Yes, a diversity of plants is key for a healthy ecosystem. If you
have a variety of producers, the forest can support a larger variety of
consumers…both lead to a larger variety of decomposers. If you have more
diversity the ecosystem is more robust. If a disease causes 1 or 2 types of
trees to die, it is a less significant problem than if the entire woods is
composed of the tree type that the disease affects.
5. Did you see any consumers on your walk? (Consumers are animals. They
get their energy by consuming (eating) producers and other consumers.)
Insects, birds, squirrel
6. You saw signs of consumers you did not get to see. What are 3 consumers
you saw signs of? What was the sign (what told you they were there?)?
Insects – holes in leaves or trees
Pileated woodpecker – holes in trees are large and rectangular
White-tailed deer – browse (nibbled plants), scat (oval)
Chipmunk – nuts on a stump, nuts in small chunks
Squirrel – nut chunks at base of tree, or on a stump or log, old nests
White-footed mouse – nuts chewed often with round holes, small nibbles
Fox – scat with hair in it, often in middle of trail or on a rock or log
Birds – hear sounds
Other types of possible signs – tracks (foot prints), sounds, fur, feathers, nests
7. For each of the consumers you listed above, were they primary or
secondary consumers? (Primary consumers are herbivores; they get their
energy by consuming producers (plants). Secondary consumers are
carnivores; they get their energy by consuming other consumers (animals).)
Primary consumers – White-tailed deer, chipmunk, squirrel, white-footed
mouse, some birds (e.g. chickadee, titmouse, woodpeckers, turkeys)
Secondary consumers – fox, coyote, some birds (e.g. hawks, owls)
8. List some adaptations of woodpeckers.
A woodpecker’s skull has a special design to protect the brain when it uses its
beak to hit the tree with great force. The woodpecker has a special toe
Everyone Outside (www.EveryoneOutside.org) Curriculum v. 4-28-14, p. 2
Teacher Version with answers
Name _____________________
arrangement so it can hang on while “hammering”. It also has a long,
narrow tongue it uses to probe, dislodge and extract insects from the hole it
drills. The woodpecker tongue can extend 4 – 5 inches.
9. Pick a consumer, other than the woodpecker, and give an example of an
adaptation it has.
Example adaptations include good hearing, good eye-sight, warm fur, flight,
ability to climb trees, etc.
10. What are 2 decomposers you saw or saw signs of on your walk?
(Decomposers get their energy by decomposing (or breaking down) dead
producers (plants) and consumers (animals).)
Green stain fungus, turkey tail & other shelf fungus, mushrooms, jelly fungus,
lichen, worms, some insects, some birds (e.g. turkey vultures)
11. A healthy ecosystem has many different types of producers, consumers
and decomposers. Can you imagine what would happen if there were no
decomposers? What would the forest ecosystem be like?
Imagine all the leaves, dead plants and animals that would pile up on the
forest floor over time. Eventually there would be no place for plants to sprout
or creatures to walk. There are other possible similar answers
12. What would happen if all the large secondary consumers were no longer
around (e.g. people killed or poisoned them.)?
If there were no secondary consumers (or very few) like coyotes there would
be no one eating the primary consumers. The population of primary
consumers would get too big. For example, in Connecticut we have too many
white-tailed deer and they eat more producers than is healthy for the
ecosystem of certain areas. Another example would be if we didn't have
enough predators to eat squirrels. This would cause there to be too many
squirrels for the nut population to provide for. There would not be enough
food for them to eat and many squirrels would die of starvation.
13. What was your favorite thing you saw, touched, or smelled on the walk?
Everyone Outside (www.EveryoneOutside.org) Curriculum v. 4-28-14, p. 3