TEKS 811A RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS ORGANISMS

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TEKS 5

TEKS 8.11A Relationships in Ecosystems

Relationships in Ecosystems

Organisms in ecosystems interact with other organisms. Organisms depend on each other for food, and sometimes for shelter, protection, and other life necessities. Some common relationships between organisms in an ecosystem include the relationships between producer and consumer, predator and prey, and parasite and host.

What Are Producers and Consumers?

Do you play an instrument in your school band? If so, you know that each instrument has a role in a piece of music. Just like the instruments in a band, each organism has a role in the movement of energy through its ecosystem. This is similar to the energy levels of organisms in an ecosystem. An organism’s energy role is determined by how it obtains food.

Producers Energy enters most ecosystems as sunlight. Some organisms, like plants, algae, and some types of bacteria, capture the energy of sunlight and store it as food energy. These organisms use the sun’s energy to turn water and carbon dioxide into food molecules in a process called photosynthesis. An organism that can make its own food is a producer. Plants are the primary producers in terrestrial ecosystems. Plants are also important producers in shallow freshwater ecosystems where it is possible for plants to take root on the bottom. In marine and deep freshwater ecosystems, the primary producers are phytoplankton, a type of floating algae.

In a few ecosystems, producers obtain energy from a source other than sunlight. One such ecosystem is found in rocks deep beneath the ground. Certain bacteria in this ecosystem produce their own food using the energy in hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is present in their environment.

Consumers Many members of many ecosystems, including all animals, cannot make their own food and get their energy by eating other organisms. An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms is a consumer.

Consumers are classified by what they eat. Consumers that eat only plants are herbivores. Some familiar herbivores are caterpillars, rabbits, and deer. Consumers that eat only animals are carnivores. Wolves, walruses, and snakes are some examples of carnivores. Consumers that eat both plants and animals are omnivores. Crows, bears, and humans are omnivores.

Some members of some ecosystems are scavengers. A scavenger is a consumer that feeds on dead organisms. Scavengers include catfish and vultures.

1. Name two examples of a producer and two examples of a consumer.

What is the Relationship Between Producers and Consumers in an Ecosystem?

Every consumer in an ecosystem is dependent on producers. Energy moves through an ecosystem when one organism eats another. As you have read, energy enters most ecosystems as sunlight and is converted into food by producers. This energy is transferred to the organisms that eat producers (herbivores and omnivores), and then to other organisms that feed on the herbivores (carnivores, omnivores, and scavengers). The movement of energy from producers to consumers in an ecosystem can be shown as a food chain or food web.

A food chain is a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy. An example of a food chain is shown below.

TEKS 811A RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS ORGANISMS

TTEKS 811A RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS ORGANISMS he first organism in a food chain is always a producer. In the example shown, the algae are the producers. The algae supply energy to the organisms that eat them. Every other organism in a food chain is a consumer.

A food web consists of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem. The next diagram shows a food web in a forest ecosystem.

It’s easy to understand how an herbivore, such as the grasshopper, is dependent on the producers in this ecosystem. The grasshopper eats the producers, alfalfa and grass. But what about the carnivores in this ecosystem, do they need alfalfa and grass? Yes. Carnivores do not directly consume producers like herbivores do, but they still depend on producers. A coyote is a carnivore that eats rabbits. Rabbits eat alfalfa and grass. So, what happens to coyotes if the population of producers decreases in this ecosystem? If the producers decrease, the rabbits will not have as much food. The rabbit population will get smaller. This means that there will be less food available to the coyotes.

2.  Describe one way that hawks in this ecosystem depend on grass.

What Are Predators and Prey, and What Is the Relationship Between Them?

Picture a tiger shark bursting through the water to seize an albatross in its powerful jaws. An interaction like this one, in which one organism kills another for food or nutrients, is called predation. The organism that does the killing is the predator. The organism that is killed is the prey.

Predation can have a major effect on population size. When the death rate exceeds the birth rate in a population, the population size will decrease. If there are too many predators in an area, the predators may eat so much of the prey that the prey population decreases. But a decrease in the number of prey results in less food for their predators. Without enough food, the predator population will decline. Generally, populations of predators and their prey rise and fall in related cycles.

Let’s revisit the food web for a forest ecosystem. In this ecosystem, the coyote is a predator whose prey includes rabbits, grasshoppers, and mice.

3.Besides the coyote, what other predator is there in this forest ecosystem, and what are its prey?

What Are Parasites and Hosts, and What Is the Relationship Between Them?

A parasite is an organism that benefits at the expense of another organism, called a host. The parasite is usually smaller than the host. The parasite gets food, protection, or other benefits from the host. A parasite always harms its host, but unlike a predator, a parasite does not usually kill the organism it feeds on. Why not? Because if the host dies, the parasite would lose its source of food or shelter.

Do you have a cat or dog? If so, you probably try to protect your pet from fleas. Fleas are parasites that get food by drinking the blood of host animals. Without treatment, pets can suffer from severe health problems as a result of these bites. The loss of blood may weaken the host, and a host may scratch itself until it loses fur or damages its skin.

4. Who benefits in a parasite/host relationship?

1. Which of the following describes a parasite/host relationship within the food webs of a freshwater ecosystem?

A A bluegill fish is eaten by a largemouth bass.

B Some crayfish eat algae at the bottom of a stream.

C A protozoan attaches to a fish’s gills and weakens the fish.

D Two male frogs compete for the same female frog.

2. Think about the relationships that occur in food webs such as producer/consumer, predator/prey, and parasite/host. Describe the relationships by identifying the name of the relationship between the organisms in this terrestrial ecosystem.

Description

Relationship

A tarantula eats an ant.

a.

A tick lives on the blood of deer, and the deer suffers from the loss of blood.

b.

A rabbit eats some clover.

c.

3. Though whales are very large, some of them survive by eating tiny organisms called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are algae that make their food through photosynthesis and form the base of many marine food webs.

a. Describe the relationship between whales and phytoplankton in a marine food web in terms of producers and consumers.

b. Describe what would likely happen to the whales and other consumers in the marine ecosystem food web if a disease killed off the majority of the phytoplankton.

4. Describe the predator/prey relationships in this marine ecosystem by drawing a food web. Read the description below. Write the name of each organism and draw arrows to indicate feeding relationships. Then, identify whether each organism is a predator, prey, or both. (Hint: Some organisms may have multiple arrows.)

Polar bears live in the Arctic and eat seals. If polar bears cannot catch enough seals, they will eat fish. The fish are also eaten by squid and seals.






5. The relationships underlined below are wrong. Read about each relationship, then describe why the underlined relationship is incorrect.

a. parasite/host: Some types of barnacles attach to the noses of whales. The barnacles benefit because they get access to the food that the whales pursue. The whales are not affected by the barnacles. A food web for this marine ecosystem indicates that the barnacles and whales form a parasite/host relationship.

b. predator/prey: One relationship in the food web of a terrestrial ecosystem is between a bear and a blackberry bush. The bear eats berries from a blackberry bush.

1.  Snapping turtles eat lake fish. Which of the following correctly describes the relationship within the freshwater ecosystem food web between snapping turtles and fish?

a. predator/prey

b. predator/host

c. producer/consumer

d. parasite/producer

2.  Water lilies are plants that make their own food by photosynthesis. Ducks eat water lilies. Which of the following correctly describes the relationship in a food web between water lilies and ducks in a freshwater ecosystem?

a. predator/prey

b. predator/host

c. producer/consumer

d. parasite/producer

3. Each of the statements below describes a producer/consumer relationship that occurs in a food web. Find the producer and consumer in each statement.

a. In a freshwater ecosystem, green algae use the sunlight to make food. Snails cannot make their own food, but they eat the algae.

Producer:

Consumer:

b. In a marine ecosystem, crabs eat kelp. Kelp makes its own food through photosynthesis.

Producer:

Consumer:

c. In a terrestrial ecosystem, whitetail deer eat plants, such as grasses and small shrubs.

Producer:

Consumer:

4. Think about the relationships that occur in food webs such as producer/consumer, predator/prey, and parasite/host. Describe the relationships in this marine ecosystem by identifying which type of relationship is the best fit for each statement.

Description

Relationship

Baleen whales eat phytoplankton.

a.

Killer whales eat salmon.

b.

Small fish use corals for their homes, but damage the coral.

c.


5. Each of the pairs of organisms below is part of a freshwater ecosystem food web. Use what you know about producer/consumer, predator/prey, and parasite/host relationships to describe whether each organism in the pair benefits or is harmed by the relationship.

a. Tapeworms are parasites of stickleback white fish.

b. Carp are consumers and lake plants are producers.

c. Mosquito fish are predators and mosquito larvae are prey.

6. Read the statements below and determine whether they describe a parasite/host relationship that occurs within the food web of an ecosystem. Explain your reasoning.

a. In a terrestrial ecosystem, a snake takes over an abandoned gopher nest.

b. In a freshwater ecosystem, anchor worms attach to fish and weaken the fish’s immune system.

c. In a marine ecosystem, a clownfish lives within a sea anemone’s tentacles and lures in other fish that provide food to the sea anemone.

7. Identify three relationships as they occur in the food web of this terrestrial ecosystem.

A gardenia flower grows in your garden. Aphids attach to the stem and suck the sap from the plant without benefitting the plant. You put some ladybugs in your garden, and the ladybugs eat the aphids. A rabbit has found your garden and likes to munch on the gardenia leaves, too!

8. Draw a food chain that represents the relationships in the marine ecosystem described below. Identify each organism as a consumer or a producer. Then, identify each consumer as either a predator, prey, or both.

You visit a local marine aquarium and speak to the penguin keeper. The keeper says that the penguins eat krill. Krill are small crustaceans that eat phytoplankton. In the wild, penguins are often eaten by leopard seals.





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