Chesapeake Bay Food Web Activity

Steps in the food web lower food web.

Chesapeake bay food web activity.

This activity was adapted from the 4 h shooting sports program. Organisms in the lower food web are usually small in fact most are so small they can t be seen with. Away their yarn pieces. In the open ocean these predators can be toothed whales dolphins sharks tuna and mackerel.

Through the story of the chesapeake bay oyster learn about the ecosystem s food web in this illustrated guide. Learning objectives students analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem. Enjoy our exclusively sourced selection of chesapeake bay gourmet meals crab cakes seafood and desserts delivered right to your doorstep. Educator materials chesapeake bay food web before large scale harvesting and european settlers this worksheet prepares students to compare this historic food web of the chesapeake bay to the food web of the present day.

In the food webs in maryland s chesapeake and coastal bays predators include bluefish striped bass eagles and osprey. The bay s middle food web includes small animals such as worms or jellyfish. Larger fish feed on nekton which in turn feed upon the largest species of all. The food chain starts with phytoplankton converting sunlight and nutrients into living tissue.

The activity could be assessed by participation or students could complete a worksheet like the food web worksheet from the teacher resources page. In this lesson sequence students analyze historic and present day food webs and graph historic and present day chesapeake bay data to learn how food web complexity is easily overlooked and why that complexity is important to healthy ecosystems. Copepods are eaten by bay anchovies which are eaten by large fish such as bluefish and striped bass. Food web jellyfish can be the dominant zooplankton during certain times of the year and during those times they influence many other parts of the chesapeake bay ecosystem.

Students must use the food web to determine abundant and rare species in the ecosystem and to predict the consequences of removing certain species from the ecosystem. The text and diagram below describe some ways they interact as prey and predators of other species. But also many fish. This worksheet prepares students to compare this historic food web of the chesapeake bay to the food web of the present day chesapeake bay ecosystem that they will receive next.

At the top level of a food web are thepredators. The top food web is where. Students could complete the food web worksheet from the teacher resource page. Phytoplankton are then are eaten by copepods which are members of the microscopic animal community called zooplankton.