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Print your instructions HERE .

Print your answer sheet HERE .

Links to information about Texas Ecoregions:

The web is not a constant place; some of these links may be broken or dead.
If you cannot access a website, move on to the next one -
you have several on each topic from which to choose.

 


Panhandle Plains| Hill Country| Gulf Coast| Big Bend Country
Piney Woods| South Texas Plains| Prairies & Lakes

Purpose : To identify components of an ecosystem; and describe how organisms including producers, consumers, and decomposers live together in an environment

The Task :  To build a mobile that shows interacting food chains in one of the Texas Ecoregions

Background Information : Texas is a BIG state; so big that it can be divided into several smaller regions.  Each of these regions has different plants, animals, landforms, and weather.  There are different ways of dividing the state into regions; the different regions are sometimes given different names. For this project we will use the seven regions described by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.  These seven regions are: 1. Panhandle Plains (Rolling Plains, High  Plains, Llano Estacado) 2. Prairies & Lakes (Blackland Prairies) 3. Piney Woods 4. Gulf Coast 5. South Texas Plains 6. Hill Country (Edward's Plateau, Llano Uplift) 7. Big Bend Country (Maintains & Basins, Trans-Pecos)

Food Chains & Food Webs.

A Food Web is made up of two or more interconnected food chains. It is a model that describes how energy in the form of food moves through a community . A food web is a series of overlapping food chains that show the food relationships among organisms in a community.

Food chains and food webs start with the Sun.  Green plants capture energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and water from the soil and convert it to glucose in the chemical reaction we call photosynthesis. 


Glucose can be converted into energy during another chemical reaction called cellular respiration. 
Most of the energy made by plants is used to carry on the plant's life activities. Because green plants can make their own energy during photosynthesis, they are known as PRODUCERS .

The energy not used by a plant is passed on as food to the next level of the food chain.

All animals get energy from their food.  Nutrients (glucose) from digested food and oxygen brought into the body by the respiratory system are converted into energy in cells through cellular respiration.    Because animals cannot make their own food (energy), and must get it from other sources, they are known as CONSUMERS . A food chain models how each organism gets its food. Some animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals. Some animals eat plants and other animals. Each link in a food chain is food for the next link. A food chain always starts with plant life and ends with an animal. Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores . Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores .  Animals that eat both are called omnivores . There are more herbivores than carnivores i n a food chain. 

Energy is passed from organism (one link in the chain) to another.
When an herbivore eats, only about 1/10 tth of the energy (that it gets from the plant food) is used by the animal; the rest of the energy is lost as heat or used up by the herbivore as it moves. Similarly, when a carnivore eats another animal, only about 1/10 th of the energy from the animal food is stored in its tissues.

In other words, organisms along a food chain pass on much less energy than they receive.

The further along the food chain you go, the less food and energy is available.

An Energy Pyramid models the decreasing amount of food/energy available to organisms in a food chain.

Most food chains have no more than four or five links.
There cannot be too many organisms in a single food chain because the animals at the end of the chain would not get enough food / energy to stay a live.

Your Task :  Use these links provided to at to create four possible food chains for your assigned ecoregion.  
The chains should form a food web.

Each food chain must have at least two consumers. There is a folder on Scommon with pictures and photos of Texas plants and animals for you to use to make the mobile.  Find the folder by going to: My Computer - Scommon - Poarch - TX_Food_Webs

Important Stuff to Remember : Every food chain begins with the sun . Every food chain must have a producer .  Four food chains means there must be four producers. Your food web must include herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores.

 

Research Links

Edwards Plateau / Hill Country / Llano uplift

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/7.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/
terrestrial/na/na0806.html

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/hillchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/hillcountry.phtml

http://www.visitwimberley.com/critters/

http://www.nps.gov/plants/color/txhill/com.htm

http://www.nps.gov/plants/color/txhill/sci.htm

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRHC&CU_ID=1

Trans-Pecos / Mountains & Valleys / Big Bend

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/10.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/bbchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/bigbend.phtml

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRBB&CU_ID=1

http://www.guadalupe.mountains.national-park.com/bird.htm

Gulf Coast

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/2.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/gulfchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/coast.phtml

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRGC&CU_ID=1

Panhandle Plains

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/9.htm

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/8.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/panhchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/panhandle.phtml

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRPH&CU_ID=1

http://www.gpnc.org/floraof.htm

http://www.scsc.k12.ar.us/2004outwest/Projects/CearleyD/biomes.htm

Piney Woods

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/1.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/pineychart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/conserve/wildlife_management/pineywood/

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/pineywoods.phtml

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/gkb3.html

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRPW&CU_ID=1

South Texas Plains

http://www.texasprairie.org/terms/6.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/sotxchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/southtexas.phtml

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRSTP&CU_ID=1

http://www.southtexasnatives.org/plants/

Prairies & Lakes / Blackland Prairies

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/
terrestrial/na/na0814.html

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/p&lchart.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/regions/prairies.phtml

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=TXTRPL&CU_ID=1

http://www.gpnc.org/floraof.htm

Photos & Fact sheets:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/wild/index.phtml

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/adv/kidspage/colorpic2.htm

The Birds of Texas - http://www.lnstar.com/mall/txtrails/texbirds.htm

Texas Wildflowers - http://hotx.com/wildflowers/

Animals of Southeast Texas - http://www.flex.net/~lonestar/wild.htm

Mammals of Texas - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/alphabet.htm

Rabbits - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/ordlagom.htm

Opossum - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/didevirg.htm

Bats - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/ordchiro.htm

Carnivores - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/ordcarni.htm

Deer, Sheep, Bison - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/ordartio.htm

Armadillo - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/dasynove.htm

Striped Skunk - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/mephmeph.htm

Hog-nosed Skunk - http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/mephmeph.htm

Photos of Plants & Animals - http://www.oldcardboard.com/lsj/images/images.htm

Texas Plants Database - http://tpid.tpwd.state.tx.us/