Directions: On the main page, you will see two Interactive Ecology Labs

Directions: On the main page, you will see two Interactive Ecology Labs listed including the name of the Lesson, a Challenge, two Steps and For your consideration. Click on the Challenge for the first lesson: The Producers. Open the Simulator in another tab, and following the directions in the two steps. Use the data tables below to fill in your results. Finally, answer the questions posed by each lesson. Next, do the same for the Food Web Interactive Lab. Make sure you do the producer lab before the food web lab.

DATA TABLE: ECOLOGY

LESSON 1: The Producers

Lesson 1:

Step 1

Plant A

Plant B

Prediction: starting population

Prediction: ending population

Starting population

Ending population

Lesson 1:

Step 2

Plant A

Plant B

Herbivore A

Prediction: starting population

Prediction: ending population

Starting population

Ending population

Step One Questions:

What assumptions does this model make about co-dominance as well as the general terrain of the ecosystem?

Do you find one producer to be dominant? Why might one producer be dominant over another?

Step Two Questions:

Does adding the herbivore establish a more equal field? Is one producer still dominant over the other? Why might one producer be dominant over another?

If the simulation included decomposers, how would your current results change?

How do producer population numbers with the presence of an herbivore compare to the primary colonizer model?

Final Questions:

From what you have learned in this module and in the video, how are humans contributing to the creation of a vastly rapid form of succession? In other words, how are we speeding up the effects of the competitive exclusion principle and thereby altering the outcome of that ecosystem’s natural succession

DATA TABLE: ECOLOGY

LESSON 2: Food Web

Lesson 2:

Step 1

(X, , or )

Plant A

Herbivore A

Omnivore A

Top Predator

Prediction

Simulation 1

Simulation 2

Lesson 2:

Step 2

(X, , or )

Plant A

Plant B

Plant C

Herbivore A

Herbivore B

Herbivore C

Omnivore A

Omnivore B

Top

Predator

Prediction

Simulation 1

Simulation 2

Modifications made

Step One Questions:

Was your prediction correct? How did you arrive at your prediction? What differences were there between your prediction and the simulation?

What would happen to this imaginary ecosystem if the producers were to die out?

Did any of the species increase in number? What could account for this increase? Which species decreased in number and what might account for this decrease?

Which populations would benefit the most from the presence of decomposers?

Step Two Questions:

Was your prediction correct? How did you arrive at your prediction? What differences were there between your prediction and the simulation?

Were you able to modify the parameters so that each species survived? Explain how you decided what changes to make.

Which way does energy flow and how does eating an organism result in energy transfer?

Final Questions:

How does a natural ecosystem offer suggestions toward a more economical and eco-friendly human model?

How do humans affect the greater food web? In this model, how could humans who do not live in the ecosystem still manage to alter the flow of energy within the web?