In this fun activity, we looked and walked around the Bellarmine campus to find certain types of organisms that fit specific roles in an ecosystem. We photographed organisms all across campus. From the garden to the science building. Bellarmine has many more ecosystems than I thought. This made it better for finding organisms. Below is the list of organisms I found that fit each specific role.
Producer - Rosoideae hesperrhodos - Western Rose
This rose is a producer. The plant undergoes photosynthesis. It uses light energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose.
Primary Consumer - Gallus Gallus Domesticus - Chicken
Even though chickens eat other primary consumers like bugs, I decided that they could fit under primary consumer because they also eat producers like plants, fruits, and seeds.
Secondary consumer - Felis Catus - Cat
Cats eat rodents, birds, and other little organisms. They are carnivores and they eat many primary consumers.
Tertiary Consumer - Homo Sapiens - Humans
Humans are omnivores. We eat producers, primary, and secondary consumers. We are considered all types of consumers but I classified us as teriary consumers for this.
Decomposer - Earth Worms
Herbivore - Sciurus carolinensis - Grey Squirrel
The squirrels on the bcp campus eat nuts, acorns, and fruits. They mainly eat plant products and are also primary consumers. I bet the squirrels on the bcp campus also eat curly fries!
Carnivore - pholcus pahlangioides - Daddy Long Legs Spider
These carnivores eat other little insects. The daddy long legs has the most potent venom out of all the spiders, but can't bite humans because there fangs are so small.
Omnivore - formicidae - Ants
Ants eat anything! You will typically find them in big groups swarming any type of food. Meats, nuts, fruits, candy, and bread. Because they eat everything, they are omnivores.
Over the last years, the numbers of bees have been decreasing mainly because of man-made problems. Change in climate and agricultural practices such as misuse of pesticides is one of the reasons. Saving the bees is saving our future because without bees, food will be scarce.
Non native species - bambuseae - Bamboo
Bamboo is definitely not native to Bellarmine. Bamboo is found in forests and in the tropic zone. Where the whether is warm. Some bamboo is found in the himalyas.
Pollution - Car
Discussion Questions
1. Often, people use the term ecology to refer to the pure science of the environment, while environmental science usually involves the interface between ecological science and the human world, particularly in terms of public policy, natural resource economics, etc. So you can think of ecology as the study of relationships among living things and between living things and non-living things in their environment, and environmental science as the study of how people relate to the natural world, in the broadest sense. An example of ecology on the Bellarmine campus would be the interactions between earthworms and compost. An example of environmental science would be find ways to get rid of non native species and control pollution.
2. A good example of an ecosystem would be the Bellarmine garden. You have many organisms growing and living there. Chickens, lizards, worms, insects, bees, trees, and plants. There are many abiotic factors affecting the garden such as sunlight, soil dryness/dampness, and temperature. Some biotic factors would be the humans watering the plants, and feeding the animals.
3.
4. The honey bees in the garden are an endangared species. Over the last years, the numbers of bees have been decreasing mainly because of man-made problems. Change in climate and agricultural practices such as misuse of pesticides is one of the reasons. Saving the bees is saving our future because without bees, food will be scarce.
5. Pollution is an introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can be chemical substance or energy. I see pollution coming from the buildings, cars, and humans. Buildings with ac and heaters use energy and release the "bad stuff". Cars release oil and pollution through their exhaust pipes. And humans all over campus leave trash around. This can make the organisms get posined.
No comments:
Post a Comment