Name: Date: Block:

Nutrient Cycles Graphics - Assignment Part One

The goal of this activity is to allow you to get a better understanding of biogeochemical cycling by investigating specific nutrient cycles. The biogeochemical cycles you will investigate are the: 1) water cycle, 2) carbon cycle, 3) nitrogen cycle, and 4) phosphorus cycle.

Some topics that you should investigate during this activity are:
1) Life is an endless game of creating, using, and transforming carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
2) There can be none of these molecules without carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and others.
3) Decomposition bacteria and other decomposers provide crucial activity.
4) The main structural components (energy, chemicals, and organisms) of an ecosystem are linked by matter recycling and the flow of energy from the sun, through organisms, and then into the environment as low-quality heat.

A suggestion is to start by searching the internet for biogeochemical cycles or a specific nutrient cycle. In your textbook, there are descriptions of all of the cycles listed above. Your graphic must be a composite of all your research (e. g. many sources into one). You will have one graphic for each of the four cycles.

The graphic will be evaluated on appearance, the inclusion of how human activities affect the cycle, a description of the cycle, a description of how the nutrient cycle connects forms of life, and the appropriateness of the graphic.

Create your four graphics and paste them into this google doc so that you can submit it on the due date.

Build an Ecological Pyramid and Food Web - Assignment Part Two

Objective: To make an ecological pyramid and food web.

Procedure:
1) Define the terms, producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary consumer.
2) Search the internet for pictures and use those pictures to construct a four-level food pyramid.
3) Include the labels of producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary consumer on your pyramid.
4) Construct a food web with a minimum of ten organisms.
5) Label the transfer of energy on the pyramid from each level beginning with 100%.
6) Lable the biomass percentage beginning with 6500 grams.
7) Create your graphics following steps one through six and paste them below. After you have pasted in your graphics, answer the Post Activity Analysis Questions.

Post Activity Analysis Questions:
1) In the ecosystem you just studied, there is a flood and one-half of all of the producers die. Over time, the numbers of organisms at all trophic levels will change. Describe how the tropic levels of primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers will change. What will the new numbers pyramid come to look like?

2) A bacteria infects and kills off five of the secondary consumers. Over time, what will the new numbers pyramid come to look like?

3) Two hundred forty new producers are introduced into the ecosystem. What will happen to the numbers of other trophic levels? What will be the new numbers of primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers?

4) In an ecosystem, there are five thousand producers and five hundred primary consumers. How many secondary and tertiary consumers would you predict are in this ecosystem?

5) In an ecosystem, there are one hundred tertiary consumers and one thousand secondary consumers. Predict how many primary consumers and producers are in this ecosystem.