Download Information:

Name: ____________________________
Block: _____
Information:
Detritivores, which eat fragments of dead matter in an ecosystem call detritus, return nutrients
to the soil, air, and water where the nutrients can be reused by organisms. Detritivores include
worms and many aquatic insects that live on stream bottoms. They feed on small pieces of dead
plants and animals. Decomposers, similar to detritivores, break down dead organisms by
releasing digestive enzymes. Fungi and bacteria are decomposers.

Red foxes feed on raccoons, crayfishes, grasshoppers, red clover (plant), meadow voles,
and gray squirrels.

Red clover (plant) is eaten by grasshoppers, muskrats, red foxes, and meadow voles.

Meadow voles, gray squirrels, and raccoons all eat parts of the white oak tree (plant).

Crayfishes feed on green algae (plant) and detritus, and they are eaten by muskrats and
red foxes.

Raccoons feed on muskrats, meadow voles, gray squirrels, and white oak trees (plant)
Your Job:
1. Use the information above to construct a food web (either on the back of this
sheet or a separate piece of paper). Remember to include the sun and to make
sure that your arrows are correctly showing the transfer of energy.
2. Identify all of the producers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and detritivores.
Write the organism’s name in the appropriate column below.
Producers
Herbivores
Carnivores
Omnivores
Detritivores
3. Critical Thinking: Describe how the muskrats would be affected if disease kills
the white oak trees.