Resource Availability in Food Webs - Critical Thinking (6-8 Grade NGSS)

After reading about cycles of matter and energy transfer in several ecosystems and studying the many interdependent relationships in ecosystems in this bundle, you should be ready to construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
     Using the Resource Availability in Food Webs diagram as a guide, create a 2-D model (illustrated diagram) for one or more of the ecosystems suggested below (or do some research and come up with one of your own). It should include the following concepts:
1) The organisms and nonliving parts (sun, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc.) of the ecosystem.
2) The cycling of matter and the flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.
3) The classification of each of the organisms as producers, consumers, and/or decomposers and their role in the ecosystem.
Example of ecosystems and the organisms to include in your diagram:
• A field ecosystem with hawks, foxes, rabbits, mice, grass, wildflowers, bushes, mushrooms, beetles, ants.
• A boreal forest ecosystem with owls, Canada lynx, snowshoe hares, grouse, conifers, trees, shrubs, mushrooms, beetles.
• An Arctic tundra ecosystem with wolves, Arctic foxes, caribou, snowshoe hares, grass, lichens, fungus, insects.
• A swamp ecosystem with bobcats, minks, cottontail rabbits, frogs, voles, trees, shrubs, plants,
mushrooms, beetles, ants.
• An Amazon rainforest ecosystem with a jaguar, anaconda, capybara, hummingbirds,
tapir, frogs, mosquitoes, trees, plants, flowers, fungus, ants.
• An urban ecosystem with peregrine falcons, hawks, pigeons, mice, songbirds,
trees, grass, fungus, ants.