Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Plankton Nekton Benthos Review

Today we started class with a jump in reviewing plankton, nekton, benthos and consumer types. For notes today we talked about food pyramids, food chains, and food webs. We talked about who eats what and how many are needed to support top predators.

Because of the law of 10%, there are often tens of thousands of plants needed to inderectly support a top predator because the plants feed an herbivore, which feeds a consumer or two or three before reaching the top consumer. At each step, ninety percent of energy is lost or consumed and only ten percent is stored in tissues.

To review plankton, nekton, and benthos, students participated in a scooter relay sorting organisms into the categories.
Plankton = floating or drifting lifestyle
Nekton = swimming
Benthos = bottom dweller - attached or crawling

Everyone had to participate once... some folks were really into it like Brandon and Rick. Both teams ended up tied with one mistake - baby fish. I asked a representative from each time where they would put baby fish besides nekton, and Rick and the right side team correctly answered plankton. They received stickers for winning. After all the excitement, students finished the day by working on a food web worksheet.

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