In this lesson, we learned about what a food web is and what its levels are, and then conducted a food web of a hydrothermal vent. The purpose of this was to have us understand the flow of energy and materials in an ecosystem, and specifically hydrothermal vent ecosystems.
My Team and I's food web.
(the best)
(the best)
Objective:
Students will make a food web diagram of the hydrothermal vent community and show the flow of energy
and materials in this ecosystem.
Materials:
· hydrothermal vent organism cards
· art paper
· marking pens
Procedures:
1. Teacher gives lesson on food chain levels: producers, consumers, carnivores, top carnivores and decomposers.
2. Obtain a set of organism cards. Read the cards. Determine the correct position of each card on the food
web chart. (Enlarge this chart using art paper and marking pens)
As you can see from the picture, my team and I used the cards that had the lifeforms and their respective information. After watching a video about the food chain in the depths, my team and I answered these Eval. questions:
Some hydrothermal vents seem to last only a few years, others may last many decades. But at some point the vent stops releasing hot, sulfide-rich water. When a vent stops, the living community faces big changes.
Which is the first member of the community affected?
A. The level of the community that would first be affected is the Bacteria that rely on the chemicals that vents vent like hydrogen-sulfide and methane to chemo-synthesize.
List some characteristics of the vent larvae that might improve their chances
of survival and ability to colonize new habitats.
Like plankton, vent larvae need to have adaptations to survive in a competitive environment. Some adaptations include camouflage, poisonous spines or tentacles, or other means of defending itself.
What do you think might cause a hydrothermal vent to stop venting?
Tremors or Tectonic Plate movement might close off some vents, or bursts of pressure near a vent might drastically reduce the amount of vented material.
Students will make a food web diagram of the hydrothermal vent community and show the flow of energy
and materials in this ecosystem.
Materials:
· hydrothermal vent organism cards
· art paper
· marking pens
Procedures:
1. Teacher gives lesson on food chain levels: producers, consumers, carnivores, top carnivores and decomposers.
2. Obtain a set of organism cards. Read the cards. Determine the correct position of each card on the food
web chart. (Enlarge this chart using art paper and marking pens)
As you can see from the picture, my team and I used the cards that had the lifeforms and their respective information. After watching a video about the food chain in the depths, my team and I answered these Eval. questions:
Some hydrothermal vents seem to last only a few years, others may last many decades. But at some point the vent stops releasing hot, sulfide-rich water. When a vent stops, the living community faces big changes.
Which is the first member of the community affected?
A. The level of the community that would first be affected is the Bacteria that rely on the chemicals that vents vent like hydrogen-sulfide and methane to chemo-synthesize.
List some characteristics of the vent larvae that might improve their chances
of survival and ability to colonize new habitats.
Like plankton, vent larvae need to have adaptations to survive in a competitive environment. Some adaptations include camouflage, poisonous spines or tentacles, or other means of defending itself.
What do you think might cause a hydrothermal vent to stop venting?
Tremors or Tectonic Plate movement might close off some vents, or bursts of pressure near a vent might drastically reduce the amount of vented material.