Living, non-living, and who eats whom · Alberta Grade 6 · maddyhelps.com
Name
Date
Write B for living (biotic) or A for non-living (abiotic) beside each part of the forest. Then draw arrows from each food to whatever eats it — the arrow shows where the energy goes. Finally, name four organisms' roles.
Sunlight
Aspen tree
River water
Beaver
Rock
Mushroom
Snow
Moss
Grasshopper
Deer mouse
Lynx
Mushroom
If the snowshoe hares disappeared, what would happen to the lynx? And to the grass?
For the grown-up
An ecosystem web
Biotic: aspen tree, beaver, mushroom, moss. Abiotic: sunlight, river water, rock, snow. Arrows: Grass → Snowshoe hare; Aspen → Snowshoe hare; Grass → Mule deer; Aspen → Mule deer; Grass → Grasshopper; Grass → Deer mouse; Grasshopper → Deer mouse; Deer mouse → Great horned owl; Snowshoe hare → Great horned owl; Snowshoe hare → Lynx; Mule deer → Grey wolf; Snowshoe hare → Grey wolf. The mushroom breaks down anything that dies. Roles: Grasshopper — herbivore; Deer mouse — omnivore; Lynx — carnivore; Mushroom — decomposer. Without hares the lynx would go hungry, because hares are almost all it eats; the grass would grow more at first, with fewer animals eating it.
The lynx and the snowshoe hare are a famous pair: their numbers rise and fall together in about a ten-year cycle across Canada's boreal forest.