Learning About Food Webs and Energy Pyramids Summary

     Food Webs and Energy Pyramids

     During this activity I learned about food webs and energy pyramids. Food webs can be defined as multiple food chains interacting with each other creating a complex set of relationships. These food webs "give ecologists a picture of how energy and materials move through a community."(Learning About Food Webs and Energy Pyramids). Ecologists use energy pyramids to show the flow of energy from one organism to the next.
From this activity I was able to recognize how the energy pyramid works and how food webs can visualize energy flows explained in the pyramid. The pyramid starts with base of producers who get their food from solar energy such as plants. Each level of the pyramid can be called a trophic level. The primary consumer that eats the plant only receives a small portion of the original energy. The secondary consumer eating the primary consumer then gets an even smaller portion of the original energy and so on. Each trophic level gets a smaller fraction of energy each time, this is the reason there are not many carnivores as there are primary and secondary consumers. "By the time the top level is reached, the supply of remaining energy has become quite small indeed."(Learning About Food Webs and Energy Pyramids).

     Each member of my group created a food chain out of cards containing a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer and a decomposer. Decomposers are at the top because they break down the tissues of nonliving/living organisms. Putting them together we were able to create a food web that shows the interactions. You are able to see here the many interactions organisms have with each other and the different ways animals can get their energy. Many of the tertiary consumers eat many organisms from different trophic levels and from different food chains.

      The type of biome my food web represents is a semi-arid desert. The soil has good drainage that supports larger root systems and also supports a wider variety of animals and plants. A semi-desert biome is presumed to have organisms such as insects, skunks, coyotes, squirrels and a wide variety of plants. While not every specie above is said by fact to be in a semi arid desert, all of the organisms fit within this biome pretty easily.



References
Frey Scientific. Environmental Issues and Solutions Module Curriculum Guide. Nashua, New Hampshire: Frey Scientific, 2013. Print

Ecological Footprint Summary

Through out the Ecological Footprint Web Activity you discover what an Ecological Footprint is as well as al the factors that come with it. First, an ecological footprint is the measure of biologically productive land and water (biocapacity) needed to provide people in a region with indefinite supply of renewable resources as well as to absorb recycle wastes and pollution. I was able to explore Ecological footprints of different parts of the world. In the United States, it takes about a year and a half to generate! Looking at the picture to the right, we can also see two possible scenarios for the year 2050.

During this activity I was also able to look at the trends of biocapacity and the ecological footprint over several years in different regions. Since 1961, the biocapacity has decreased. From this we can infer that we consume way more then we produce.

To get an even greater understanding of the ecological footprint I was able to calculate my own ecological footprint. My ecological footprint according to the number of earths was 4.6. It was surprising and interesting to see because I was able to see how many resources I actually use. My use of services was 44%, food resources was 19%, shelter was 8%, mobility was 17% and goods was 13%.

Once I received this information I went back and changed the mobility, if I were to use the bus more instead of driving a car the amount of earths drops to 4.3 and that is only a slight change. I found this very interesting because small changed can really make a change in how long it takes to renew these resources.

Overall throughout this activity I was able to get a deeper understanding of what the ecological footprint is!