Stefani+Science

Introduction: For this assessment, we researched plants and animals that live in the Salt Marsh ecosystem. What we did, was find out what plants and animals live in the salt marsh area. We also had to find what the animal ate and what ate it. We also had to find out what plants lived in the area and what consumed it.

Qa.) Create as many food chains. (I am not able to copy food chains onto this page)

Qb.) Create a food web using your food chains. (I am not able to copy food web onto this page.

Qc.) Which organisms are producers?  The organisms in the ecosystem (Salt Marsh) that are producers include: Fungi, seeds, fruit, seaweed (Algae), bacteria, lantana and leaves.   Qd.) Identify all consumers as either first, second or third order.
 * First Order Consumer || Second Order Consumer ||  Third Order Consumer ||
 * Crab || Native Rat ||  Eagle ||
 * Rabbit || Octopus ||  Ibis ||
 * Fish || Heron ||  Tiger Snake ||
 * Rosella || Fox ||  Quoll ||
 * Black Swan || Feral Cats || ||
 * Black Wallaby || Egret || ||
 * Insects || Frog || ||

Qe.) Are any of your organisms omnivores, herbivores and carnivore?
 * Carnivore || Herbivore || Omnivore ||
 *  Tiger Snake || Rosella || Crab ||
 * Fox || Black Wallaby || Spoonbill ||
 * Native Rat || || Grey Teal ||
 * Egret || || Black Swan ||
 * Ibis || || White- Fronted Chat ||
 * Heron || ||  ||

Qf.) Which organisms are predators? The animals that are predators include: crab, octopus, fox, eagle, tiger snake, qoull, feral cats, crocodile, egret, native rats and spoonbill.

Qg.) Which organisms are prey? The animals that are prey include: crab, black swan, rosella, insects, frog, tiger snake, fox, black wallaby, rabbit, fish, egret, heron and native rats.

Qh.) Which organisms are competing for the same food? The native rat and octopus are both competing for the crab. The heron and fox are competing for the rabbit. The egret, heron and spoonbill are both competing for the fish. The fox and eagle are competing for the rosella. The fox and feral cats are both competing for the black wallaby. The egret and frog are competing for the insects. The tiger snake and ibis are both competing for the frog.

Qi.) What would happen to the producers if the number of first and second order consumers increases? If the number of first order consumers increased, that would mean there would not be enough food from the producers (plants) and so the first order consumers would die. Meaning that there won’t be enough first order consumers for the second order consumers to eat. And if there isn’t enough first order consumers, which would mean that the plants would grow out of control.

Qj.) What would happen to the ecosystem if the second order consumers became extinct? If the second order consumers became extinct that would mean that the third order consumers wouldn’t have anything to eat. The first order consumers would breed out of control because there’s nothing eating them. And if the first order consumers breed out of control that would mean that there wouldn’t be enough producers (plants) to go around for the first order consumers.

Qk.) What are some of the decomposers in your ecosystem? The decomposers in the ecosystem are the fungi and the bacteria.

QL.) Choose one of your consumers. Predict what would happen if the population changed in size If the fox population increased that would mean that there would be less prey to go around for them. But if the fox population decreased that would mean that there would be a lot of prey to go around which could mean that the fox’s prey would breed out of control because there isn’t enough foxes to eat them.  Qm.) What is an introduced species? Are there any in your ecosystem? An introduced species is an animal, bird, insect etc. that has been transported from another country to Australia. Yea there is an introduced species in our ecosystem, the fox. The fox was introduced to Australia from Europe. Qn.) What is a biological control? Are there any in your ecosystem? A biological control is when there is too much of a species, and so scientists introduce another animal that eats the species which is over populated. This will minimize and keep the over populated species under control. No, there are no biological control species in the Salt Marsh ecosystem.

Conclusion: During this assessment, we learnt what animals ate other animals in the Salt Marsh ecosystem. We also learnt that when constructing a food web or food chain, always have a producer (plant) at the bottom. The arrows should always point up, towards the animal that eats the organism. The carnivore always eats another animal eg. A fox eats a rabbit or a tiger snake is eaten by the quoll. There are also herbivores in the Salt Marsh ecosystem. Herbivores are organisms that only eat plants (producers) and don’t eat other animals. Examples of herbivores in the ecosystem, is the rosella which eats seeds/fruit or a black wallaby that eats grass.

Introduction Maths English Sose Conclusion Bibliography