Guided Practice: Ecosystems
Quick Review
Before we practice, let's remember the key concepts:
- Producers make their own food using sunlight (plants)
- Consumers eat other living things to get energy
- Herbivores eat only plants
- Carnivores eat only animals
- Omnivores eat both plants and animals
- Decomposers break down dead plants and animals
Practice Problems
1. A hawk eats a mouse that ate seeds from a plant. What is the hawk in this food chain?
A) Producer
B) Primary consumer
C) Secondary consumer
D) Decomposer
Answer
C) Secondary consumer - The hawk eats the mouse (a primary consumer), making it a secondary consumer.
2. Which of these is a producer?
A) Rabbit
B) Mushroom
C) Oak tree
D) Earthworm
Answer
C) Oak tree - Trees are producers because they make their own food through photosynthesis.
3. A bear eats berries, fish, and honey. What type of consumer is a bear?
A) Herbivore
B) Carnivore
C) Omnivore
D) Decomposer
Answer
C) Omnivore - Bears eat both plants (berries) and animals (fish), making them omnivores.
4. What would happen to a food chain if all the producers died?
A) Only carnivores would survive
B) The whole food chain would collapse
C) Animals would make their own food
D) Nothing would change
Answer
B) The whole food chain would collapse - Producers are the base of all food chains. Without them, herbivores would starve, then carnivores would too.
5. Where does the energy in a food chain originally come from?
A) Water
B) Soil
C) The sun
D) Air
Answer
C) The sun - All energy in food chains starts from the sun. Plants capture sunlight to make food.
6. Mushrooms growing on a dead log are acting as:
A) Producers
B) Consumers
C) Decomposers
D) Herbivores
Answer
C) Decomposers - Mushrooms break down dead organic matter, recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem.
7. In a pond ecosystem, algae is eaten by small fish, which are eaten by bigger fish. What is the algae?
A) Consumer
B) Producer
C) Decomposer
D) Carnivore
Answer
B) Producer - Algae uses sunlight to make its own food, making it a producer.
8. Why are there usually more herbivores than carnivores in an ecosystem?
A) Carnivores are harder to see
B) Energy decreases at each level of the food chain
C) Herbivores live longer
D) Carnivores don't need much food
Answer
B) Energy decreases at each level - Only about 10% of energy passes from one level to the next, so there must be more organisms at lower levels.
9. A caterpillar only eats leaves. What type of consumer is it?
A) Omnivore
B) Carnivore
C) Herbivore
D) Decomposer
Answer
C) Herbivore - Caterpillars eat only plant matter, making them herbivores.
10. Which food chain is in the correct order?
A) Fox → Rabbit → Grass
B) Sun → Grass → Rabbit → Fox
C) Rabbit → Grass → Fox
D) Grass → Fox → Rabbit
Answer
B) Sun → Grass → Rabbit → Fox - Energy flows from the sun to producers (grass), to herbivores (rabbit), to carnivores (fox).
Next Steps
- Practice identifying organisms in your local area
- Draw food chains you observe in nature
- Continue to the Investigation Lab