Assessment 4-2

Wetland Food Web

Food webs are complex systems that show how all the organisms in an ecosystem are interconnected.  The simple food chain you constructed shows only a single, simple relationship among a few organisms.  In the wetlands, you know that there many other organisms that may eat or be eaten by the organisms in your food chain.

Consider the plants and animals you learned about in the section called What plants and animals may be found in a wetland site?  How would you connect them in a wetland food web? 

Construct a food web diagram. Show the paths by which energy passes from one organism to another.

Your “Wetland Food Web” (network of inter-related food chains) needs to include:

• Pictures and names of 10 organisms – at least one from each of the following groups: producers, consumers, and decomposers that live in the wetland (5 marks)
  
• Labels that indicate the role of each organism (producer, consumer, or decomposer) (5 marks)
  
• Explanations of the roles of producer, consumer, and decomposer (3 marks)
  
• An identification of the sun as the source of energy. Show the flow of energy with arrows.
  
• Arrows should show clearly the relationships among the organisms. (2 marks)
  
  

You can start by using the food chain you already made, or you can use completely new organisms if you prefer.  You may need to do some additional research to find exactly what some of these animals eat.

This Government of Alberta document may be helpful for some of the organisms you might consider including:

  Skill Builder

Click a link below to learn how to:

construct a Food Web in Google Drawing Docs