Teachers > Rainforest Food Chains and Webs
Examples and Background
Interconnected Food Chains or A Food Web
Sun > Strangler Fig > Howler > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Stranger Fig > Howler > Crocodile > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Ant > Lizard > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Wasp > Spider > Bird > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Caterpillar > Lizard > Harpy Eagle
Sun > Strangler Fig > Ant > Spider > Frog > Human Being (eats the monkey shot with an arrow poisoned with frog toxin) > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Fungus > Ant > Frog > Snake > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Fungus > Ant > Ant Eater > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Bat > Snake > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Bat > Owl > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Bat > Possum > Margay > Harpy Eagle > Decomposers
Sun > Algae > Mosquito Larva > Tadpole > Howler Monkey > Jaguar > Decomposers
Sun > Plants/Mud > Caterpillar/Blue Morpho Butterfly > Crocodile Hatchling > Coatimundi > Crocodile > Human Being > Decomposers
Sun > Strangler Fig > Ant > Spider > Lizard > Crocodile Hatchling > Coatimundi > Human Being
Kid-friendly Food Web Link
Enchanted Learning
www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/rainforest/animals/Foodweb.shtml
rainforest food web pyramid
Teacher Background
The following background material was taken from Tropical Rainforests--A Disappearing Treasure: Teacher Manual and Student Activities, a publication of the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Services. In addition to background material, the guide also includes food web activities.
www.sites.si.edu
Food Chains and Food Webs
An Introduction
Food Chains are used to explore the relationships that exist within an ecosystem. In the tropical rainforest, as in all living systems, the primary source of all energy is the sun. Plants convert the radiant energy (the sun's rays) into chemical energy (food), by the process of photosynthesis. This conversion from kinetic energy (the sun's rays) to potential energy (stored energy, such as food) is very inefficient, approximately only 1% of the radiant energy from the sun is converted to chemical energy.
The next step occurs after the plants have captured and converted the sun's energy: animals eat the plants and convert the plant's chemical energy into their own type of chemical energy. Another way to say this is to say that animals reorganize the energy into their system. But, animals must expend or use energy to obtain or find energy. They use a lot of energy just to survive: it takes energy to walk around looking for food, it takes energy to chew and digest food. Nearly 90% of an animal's food intake is used to survive, leaving 10% of the energy eaten by an animal to be stored in their bodies. Animals absorb more energy than plants because they convert chemical energy into chemical energy, which is more efficient than converting radiant energy to chemical energy.
In every ecosystem more than just energy flows through the system: organisms are composed of matter as well as energy. Nutrients pass through the food chain, starting with the plants and continuing through the animals. The earth is a closed system, and so we know that nutrients are finite and must be reused in order for life to enjoy a prolonged stay on our planet. In order to reuse these resources, matter must be recycled back into the living system. Nowhere on earth does this recycling occur faster than in a rainforest. The high temperature and humidity allows decomposers to break down dead animals and plants back into nutrients which can be reabsorbed by living plants into the food chain.
SUN > FIG TREE > WASP > SPIDER > BIRD > decomposers
Food Chain: Energy flows in the direction of the arrows.
Decomposers are organisms such as bacteria and fungii. They survive by removing the chemical energy from dead organisms and waste material (feces). Every food chain includes decomposers. Within a food chain each of the different organisms is interrelated. Plants produce the chemical energy needed by the animals of the food chain, therefore we refer to plants as producers. Animals eat plants or other animals, and are known as consumers. The different consumers of the food chain on the previous page may be categorized in order: the wasp a first level consumer, the spider is a second level consumer, the bird is a third level consumer.
One can also categorize the animals in this food chain by what they eat: herbivores eat plant material, carnivores eat other animals and omnivores eat both animals and plants. Here, the wasp is an example of an herbivore, and the spider and the bird are carnivores. When as in this example, a food chain contains more than one carnivore, scientists name them in order. The spider is the first level carnivore, and the bird is the second level carnivore. If there were more carnivores, which many food chains do contain, they would be listed as third level, fourth level, and so on.
Food chains are simple illustrations that explain the energy relationships within an ecosystem. Since animals within an ecosystem rarely eat just one organism, scientists illustrate more complicated relationships by drawing food webs. Food webs can be thought of as many food chains all linked together. In a food web many producers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores are interrelated.
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