...Food Web Case Study Brenda Phouthavong MTH/221 September 8, 2014 Gary Page Food Web Case Study In a single ecosystem, all the food chains consisted in a food web. Those that are living in an ecosystem is part of more than one food chain. As the process moves on through the ecosystem, each food chain is one possible path that energy and nutrients may take (Mader, 1996). Indeed all of the interconnected and overlapping food chains contain many organisms that take place within various niches because their resources are available for their habitat (Mader, 1996). Various types of organisms within the food web are grouped into categories called trophic levels. In this food web case study, we will use the food web as a directed graph to model the relationship between predators and prey in an ecological community and the use of graph to visually explain the important parameters that consider a competition for ecological surroundings for organisms. As directed in a simple food web of an ecological community, the graph displays an apex for each organism in a trophic level and a direct border from the apex visually explaining individual A to the apex illustrating individual B, and however, the path continues if A preys on B (Roberts, 1976). Within this particular graph, the toad, milk snake, salamander, raccoon, grasshopper, fox, and the robin were chosen for a group of seven species, and the results show competition among one another. Again, if there is a common prey to catch,...
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...Mojave Desert Food Web The life of the organisms in the Mojave Desert originates with the light and energy that the sun provides. In combination with the solar energy, rainfall, carbon, and nutrients the miracle of life begins with plants growing from seeds from the parent plant. Scientists refer to these plants as autotrophs, or producers because they make their own food energy by using the process of photosynthesis. A heterotroph cannot produce energy, and therefore are dependent on the producers and other herbivores to receive their source of energy. The first type of heterotroph is the primary consumer, which are the herbivore that eat only plants. These herbivores are one of the food sources of the omnivores, the secondary consumers, which consume plants and herbivores. Omnivores will also consume carnivores. Carnivores consume omnivores and other carnivores as their primary food sources. The connections of each species within this cycle are the networks that scientists call the food chain, and connected food chains a food network or food web. Another important connection in this cycle is the process of energy passing from one organism to the next. This process is the energy flow, and the food web illustrates the energy flow among the organisms in the food chain for the Mojave Desert ecosystem. The Pathways of Energy Flow Scientists identify food chains and food webs as the pathways that energy and matter pass from each link in the chain beginning with the...
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...Food Webs Report Week 5 MTH / 221 University of Phoenix Food Webs It may be difficult to know all the factors which determine an ecological niche, and some factors may be relatively unimportant. Hence it is useful to start with the concept of competition and try to find the minimum number of dimensions necessary for a phase space in which competition can be represented by niche overlap. One approach to this question is to consider the notion of the food web of an ecological community. Definition 1 A food web of an ecological community is a directed graph with a vertex for each species in the community and a directed edge from the vertex representing species A to the vertex representing species B if and only if A preys on B We can define competition using the food web. Two species compete if and only if they have a common prey. Thus, a Hawk and Wolf compete (since Rabbit is a common prey); Rabbit and Grasshopper compete, while Deer and Toad do not compete. We use this competition relation to define a graph called the competition graph. Definition 2 The competition graph of a food web is a simple graph with a vertex for each species. Two vertices are joined by an edge if and only if the species they represent have a common prey. Definition 3 A graph is an intersection graph for a family of sets if each vertex is assigned a set in such a way that two vertices are joined by an edge if and only if the corresponding sets have non-empty...
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...because of multiple human activities that have led to environmental issues and concerns such as pollution, ozone layer thinning, global warming etc. Human impact is a serious threat to ecosystem and food chain of Antarctica. In the last few decades, various marine species of Antarctic ecosystem have been brought close to extinction because of human activities in various forms such as pollution from sewage and other contaminants, overfishing and other mixed activities and interference like global climate change caused by human emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, ozone layer depletion, global warming etc. This all leads to damage of food web and ecosystem of the Antarctica. Another serious impact of emission of carbon dioxide is ocean acidification, which is serious damage to the marine ecosystem of Antarctica. These activities are the main causes of disturbed environment of marine ecosystem of Antarctica. Another factor contributing to Antarctica's ecosystem disturbance is the commercial aspect of human activities. Human are harvesting krill to feed their animals and fishes which is negatively affecting the ecosystem of Antarctica. It is affecting the volume of krill and other fishes which are important source of food chain of Antarctica. Because of less krill, food chain of Antarctica is getting disturbed. Researches have shown that due to global warming, sea temperate is rising and cause less formation of ice packs during the winters. It is affecting the marine...
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...Food-web Diagram Janice Spencer BIO/101 December 15, 2014 Food-web Diagram As defined in Chapter 20 of our text from week five, an ecosystem is a biological community and the abiotic factors with which the community interacts. In order to maintain, the energy must flow continuously through an ecosystem, from producers to consumers and decomposers. Trophic relationships determine an ecosystem’s routes of energy flow and chemical cycling (Simon, Dickey, & Reece, 2013). According to the text in chapter 20, ecologists are working to revitalize some ecosystems by planting native vegetation, removing barriers to wildlife, and other means. There are hundreds of restoration projects under way in the United States to help restore ecosystems to their natural state. One of the most ambitious endeavors is the Kissimmee River Restoration Project in south-central Florida. Each year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District releases a comprehensive report evaluating monitoring of data within the ecosystem of the Everglades. This information is available online at http://www.bit.ly/SSR 2014. According to research, “the Everglades contain a vast array of plants and animals that have adapted to the wet subtropical environment.” A few examples include birds such as the whooping crane, great blue, white, and tricolored herons, wood stork, and the cape-sable seaside sparrow. Land mammals such as the raccoon, skunk, opossum, bobcat and the white-tail...
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...Food Web Diagram Brandy Meilhon SCI 230 Week 9 Create a diagram in which you illustrate the energy flow among organisms of a food chain in a particular ecosystem. Select an ecosystem, such as a temperate forest, desert biome, or the Everglades. For the ecosystem, I chose The Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Determine the interdependency of life in your ecosystem by examining its organisms. Include the following: List the organisms that can be found in your ecosystem. 1. Dolphin 2. Green Sea Turtle 3. Tiger Shark 4. Trevallies 5. Cardinal Fish 6. Manta Ray 7. Remora 8. Giant Triton 9. Crown of Thorns Starfish 10. Hard Coral 11. Zooxanthelleae 12. Sea Slugs 13. Sea Sponges 14. Spanish Dancer 15. Sea Grasses 16. Barracuda 17. Parrot Fish 18. Algae 19. Scorpion Fish 20. Goby 21. Saddled Butterfly Fish 22. Sea Anemones 23. Clownfish 24. Long Nosed Butterfly Fish 25. Barred Rabbit Fish 26. Branching Coral 27. Jellyfish 28. Coneshells 29. Bluestriped Fangblenny 30. Lizzard Fish 31. Phytoplankton 32. Coralline algae 33. Filamentous Turfalgae 34. Many species of seaweed 35. Bacteria (PBS evolution, 2003) * What is the benefit of this biodiversity? The Great Barrier Reef is well known for its vast biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of organisms that can be found to fulfill and the vital niches in an ecosystem. Each...
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...Food Web Design Geree Morris April 24,2010 Bio 101 Instructor Natalie Garay Introduction: The rainforest biome is exceptional because of the quantity of life it holds. Partially all the worlds’ plants and animals inhabit there. Tree trunks are proven to hold at least forty-three species of ants in the rainforest. Each day, scientists are discovering additional foliage and animals in the temperate rainforest. Numerous people deem that the rainforests multiplicity is due to the closeness of its positioning to the equator. It is stated that the farther a location is from the equator, the fewer plant and animals exists. The temperate rainforest generates the most solar energy in the world, because the equator is the nearest spot on the earth to the sun. Sun rays strike the equator straight on, not on an angle, because of the curve in the earth. The supplementary solar energy permits greater amounts of photosynthesis and growth in plants, permitting animals to have an uninterrupted stock of rations. The consistency in temperature is also a stimulus. Animals do not have to acclimatize to the changing seasons. These animals are provided the opportunity to become familiarized with their ecosystem in methods that are not possible in any other biome. Water also formulates variety (Elizabeth Anne Viau, 2000). Food Web Design: The Temperate Forest: (Elizabeth Anne Viau, 2000). List the organisms that may be found in your ecosystem, and indicate...
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...Unit II: Genetics Brief Overview Reading: Chapters 3, 4, 9-12, 14 (Note: you have reviewed much of this already) The earth is teeming with living things. We can easily see some of the larger organisms—trees, grass, flowers, weeds, cats, fish, squirrels, dogs, insects, spiders, snails, mushrooms, lichens. Other organisms are everywhere, in the air, in water, soil and on our skin, but are too small to see with the naked eye—bacteria, viruses, protists (single celled eukaryotes such as amoebae), and tiny plants and animals. Life is remarkable in its complexity and diversity, and yet it all boils down to a very simple idea—the instructions for making all this life are written in nucleic acids, usually DNA. Most organisms have a set of DNA that contains the instructions for making that creature. This DNA contains four “letters” in which these instructions are written—A, T, G, and C. The only difference between the code for a dog and the code for a geranium is in the order of those letters in the code. If you took the DNA from a human and rearranged the letters in the right way, you could produce an oak tree—arrange them slightly differently and you would have a bumble bee—arrange them again and you would have the instructions for making a bacterium. Acting through more than two billion years, the process of evolution has taken one basic idea—a molecular code that uses four letters—and used it over and over, in millions of combinations to produce a dazzling array of life forms...
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...Whitney Food Chain A food chain is a chain that describes the way food is made from beginning to end to provided the organisms with something to eat. Every organism is different when it comes to what they eat, for example; some eat plants or other organisms. The food chain starts with the primary energy source, otherwise known as the sun, which provides the light and heat. Next in the food chain is the primary producers, which make their own food from the sunlight, photosynthesis is an example. Then comes the primary consumers, which eat the primary producers, or other know as herbivores. Next is the secondary consumers, which eat the herbivores, other know as carnivores or meat eaters. Then there are the teritary which eat the secondary consumers and the quaternary consumers, which eat the teritary consumers. Each food chain ends with a top predator, which are animals that have little or no natural enemies to be aware of. Food Web A food web is a pyramid made up of different plants and animals that have an effect on one another by their eating habits. At the bottom of the pyramid it starts with the decomposers and producers. Then the next level are the herbivores which are the organisms to which they only eat plants. Then are the carnivores which are the organisms that are also considered to be meat eaters. Finally at the peak of the pyramid are the omnivores, which eat both plants and meat. The difference between the two is that the food chain follows a single path...
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...Everglades Food Web Diagram Name BIO 101 Date University of Phoenix Everglades Food Web Diagram Create a diagram in which you illustrate the energy flow among organisms of a food chain in a particular ecosystem. (Insert diagram) The Florida Everglades is a vast stretching river that occupies much of central and southern Florida. Florida’s Everglades is home to a diverse ecosystem of bacterial, tropical and subtropical plants, trees, reptiles, animals, and aquatic life. These various species comprise the balance of the Everglade ecosystem. Each species plays a pivotal role in maintaining a vigorous striving environment. The Everglades sustains a semitropical climate with wet summers, dry winters, and is susceptible to hurricanes during the summer and early autumn months (Aber, 2009). Organisms found in the Everglades Plants The Everglades is home to a wide diversity of plants. The two million acre wetland ecosystem is inhibited by wetland plants that include sawgrass, bladderwort, cypress, mangrove trees, and others that serve as primary food sources and shelters for many consumers of this habitat (National Wildlife Federation, 2012). Animals The Everglades is home to numerous species of animals including those native to the lands, threatened, and considered endangered. Wildlife populaces include over 350 bird species including the Great Blue heron, great egret, and wood stork. Land dwellers that inhibit the Everglades include Alligator and crocodile reptiles...
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...exacerbating or improving the existing situation. * Discuss how a proper application of the scientific method could have helped the problem. * Address any alternative solutions beyond the scientific method. * Format your analysis consistent with APA guidelines. * * * There are two forms of animals that are important in the environment of the Antarctic: microscopic photosynthetic algae (also referred as Marine algae) and herbivores, tiny shrimp-like krill. According to Raven, P, Berg, L., & Hassenzahi, D. (2010), there are some environmental problems associated to the case in point, “How Humans have affected the Antarctic Food Web”. Some of these environmental problems are with the thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica, the hunting of whales, global climate change, and human harvest of krill. (p. 59). This paper is prepared to help to identify where humankind’s activities have been careless with the environment where they are unintended consequences. Also, explained is how scientific or technological activities are exacerbating or improving the existing situation, discussions on how a proper application of the scientific method could help the problem, and point out any alternative solution...
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...Is celiac disease a legitimate ailment or a propaganda used my the media machine to throttle views and sell tabloids? Well simply put, it is a combination of the two; celiac diseases has been getting a lot of media coverage due to its association with the gluten-free diet and the proposed benefits of implementing it in one's lifestyle. In essence, celiac disease is an immune-mediated systemic disorder; people who suffer from the ailment are unable to digest gluten, a protein found in common food substances. Celiac disease causes different symptoms such as Diarrhea, Iron and Vitamin D deficiency, weight loss, anemia, and osteoporosis. Celiac disease may be indulged to some as vogue; however, it is a major disorder, which alters the lives of...
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...Galina Bychkova Professor Russell Hirsh College Writing II August 5, 2015 Family Dinners Are Significant For those interested in improving their family’s interpersonal relationship and overall health, say, “goodbye” to take out food and “hello” to home-cooked family dinners. In this modern age and technologically advanced century, people rarely eat at home with their families. In America, many parents work long hours in which it becomes challenging for them to cook home- meals and eat together with their children. Therefore, many families resort to ordering takeout food. For many American families, it is hard to schedule family dinners for reasons that might be because sometimes parents work overtime, or children have some social activities. However, if members of a family put effort to gather for dinner, studies have shown its possible positive effects for family members. Many family meals give a family a chance to talk about happenings of the day, laugh, make family decisions, and enjoy the food in a tide in manner. Moreover, family dinners can help family members to learn about each other and build better interpersonal relationships. Regular family meals with family have been shown to lower a high-risk teenage behavior, such as sexual activity, drinking alcohol, smoking, marijuana use, eating disorders, violence, and school problems. In addition, family dinners have shown to decrease the risk of child obesity, improve a child’s social skills, and reduce behavioral...
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...What Made Fast Food So Popular In the old days people used to eat healthy home cooked meals together as a family. However things have changed, today we can see that people prefer to eat outside their home and order from fast food restaurants, and this is due to the huge increase in popularity of fast food restaurants. Today people try to save as much time as possible due to the necessity to cope with numerous tasks within a limited amount of time. In the majority of cases modern people have busy work schedules and don’t have enough time to cook a meal. The fast food industry is more popular than ever but is it because fast food restaurants made themselves popular? The American lifestyle has changed and these changes have caused the fast food industry to grow in popularity because of its convenience, it’s inexpensive and the need to eat healthy is not a priority. One of the main reasons why fast food restaurants happen to be so popular is the change in life-style. The American lifestyle has changed greatly over the last few decades, people have demanding work schedules with long hours, children come late from school so parents are left with very little time to think about what to make for dinner. It is difficult for them to divide their time between their job and their responsibilities at home like cooking or finding time to prepare their food. This is why they rather go outside to eat instead of spending time on preparing a meal. Now many families have two household...
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...have a certain set of formalities that their actions or interactions are based on. Examples include how a person acts at the dinner table or how a person interacts with others in their society. Different formalities cause people of different cultures to act in a certain way. As a result, if formalities of different cultures were to intermix, many people would be shocked or taken back by the behavior of the people in the other society. The Japanese have a strict set of rules instilled into the people since a young age that guides them through everyday actions. For example, during meals in Japan the Japanese follow certain speech and action patterns. To start off a meal, they say, “Itadakimasu” which translates to “Thank you for the food.” This shows their appreciation to their host for taking them in and providing them with a meal. At the end of the meal they say, “Gochiso sama deshita” to thank the host for the meal (Uyemura). If left unsaid, it would be an example of impropriety, and would be considered rude. Between those...
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