What did you learn this week?
We learned that ecology is the study of the relationship between living organisms and their physical environment. We also learned that biomes, ecosystems, and habitats are all parts of an environment. Habitats are more specific than biomes, and ecosystems are more specific than habitats. This was interesting to learn more in-depth because I thought these were all just synonyms. Another thing we learned was that animals can work together to benefit in these environments.
Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew?
We learned about how dolphins work together to create a mud net in their ecosystems. I knew that animals worked together to get food and have to come together to trap other prey. The example that I knew was orca whales working together to trap seals and eat them, but we learned more about whales in Alaska. These whales make a wall of bubbles to trap fish and gather their prey. This helped give me more examples of the predator vs prey relationship.
Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing?
One part that I found confusing was the food web vs food chain. I understand that the food web shows how connected the consumers and producers are, but how do you know when to use which one over the other? Another aspect I thought was confusing was how 90% of the energy is lost as it goes up the level in the food chain. I know it is lost through heat, but how does that work?
Hi Meredith, I also was confused how the process of energy loss and retainment worked throughout the food chain. Trying to picture that much energy being lost through every level is kind of hard to imagine, and I wonder how the third-level consumers can even survive with that little energy while normally being large animals.
ReplyDeleteHi Meredith, I too was a bit confused about the loss of energy during each level. I found the videos we watched to be super interesting. I had never heard about dolphins doing this in order to trick fish. I'm glad we dove in depth about the differences of each of the systems because I definitely needed a refresh.
ReplyDeleteHi Meredith! I was also confused about the food web vs food chain, along with how 90% of the energy is lost as it goes up the level in the food chain. I'm curious to learn more about both the web and chain.
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