HOW THE FOREST IS FUELLED
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The forest requires a supply of energy to fuel its functions; it requires a supply of materials to build itself; and it requires a means to remove its wastes.
For an animal, energy and materials come in a convenient package called food.
Sunlight is the ultimate and only significant source of energy for an organism or ecosystem.
Only one type of organism can trap solar energy and convert it to a usable form, and that organism is called a green plant
A plant is thus termed a Producer (of energy), because of its ability to trap energy from the sun for the ecosystem.
Animals are consumers. Those that feed directly on plants are at the first level. Animals that eat other animals are second or third-level consumers.
Finally, the animals are broken down and the nutriments enter the soil to be taken up by a new set of plants. So the cycle goes on.
Each food chain starts with a producer and several consumers. The different food chains form a food web.
Both diagrams taken from "Black Mountain a Walkers Guide"
Food Web Activities
Use your knowledge of the organisms in the Aranda Bushland to make up your own drawings using organisms you have seen.
Collect pictures of animals and plants you have seen in the bush. Find out who eats what. Make this into a web diagram.
Research the other organisms that you would not normally see, such as soil bacteria, soil fungi (the fungus you see is just the fruiting body). Add these to your diagram to take their place in the web.
Download the two sets of animals and plants from this website. Print them out and then cut them up into individual pictures and arrange them into food chains. Link these chains into a food web.
Download the first picture set
Download the second picture set
| Black & White Birds | Succession | Fungi | Food Web | Listen to Birds | Reptiles |