Wednesday, January 20, 2010



1- Name the producers

In the web there are two producers, cactus fruit and flowering plants

2- Primary producers in this food web are the ones who feed on plants. They are small mammals and insects.

3- Secondary consumers are the animals who feed on herbivore. The secondary consumers are scorpions, rattle snakes, roadrunners, lizards, eagles, coyotes.

4- spraying any toxic substance can lead into great danger. Usually farmers would spray their plants with poisons that does not harm the plant but the insects, however the when the substance enters the insect, it causes it to death or illness. As we all know insects are eaten by lizards scorpions and so on, so when they are eaten, the poisons transfer to the other animals system ( for example stomach, liver etc) and cause death. After the animal is infected, he might be hunted by another animal or predator who will also get infected and so that causes a death of more than one living being. On the other hand, if the farmer goes and kills them, he will do less damage than spraying poisons, since it is not guaranteed for him to hunt any.

5- The relation ship between coyotes and the seed is Commensalism. Commensalism is when a species or an organism benefits from another organism while the other is unaffected (thefreedictionary). When the seed is carried by the fur, it will be spread around which will give it more space to grow and it wont have op fight over water, space, sunlight etc. As a result, the seed can grow healthy and eventually, it makes it easier to populate. However the Coyotes is not affected negatively or positively by the seed growing or not, however they are affected in a slim none direct way and it is if the seed grows, it will make more food available, yet it refers to commensalism more than Mutualism.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Home Work

1- who eats?
a-Plants: plants are a major contributor to the food chain and it is at the bottom since they don't eat other living things except specific kinds. Plants are eaten by herbivores such as mammals (cows, horses, sheeps etc)and by humans. plants are also eaten by insects such as ants, and some specific kinds of bacteria such as fungi when die.

b-Snakes: Even though snakes are very dangerous and the look as if they are at the top of the food chain, they are not. Usually snakes dominate the middle or the center of the food chain which means they are not very powerful. snakes are eaten by some kinds of fish (Don't have an example), birds such as hawks and carnivorous mammals (Badger).

c-Insects: Insects are eaten by Fish, birds and amphibians.

d- Mountain lions: Mountain lions seem to be at the top of the food chain however, they are eaten by wolves when they are ill or dead, bacteria and insects eat and use it as a home.

2- What could happen in the food web if coyote were extinct?
Coyote is a carnivore and it eats lizards. If they did not exist anymore the number of lizards will start to over populate, leading a lack of number in ants which will lead to a lack number of bats, this way we would have three organisms extinct not to mention lizards because they wont be able to be fed and so badgers will also be extinct or lacked in number.

3- If the mountain lions were over populated, what could have happen?
There will be an imbalance in the ecosystem because mountain lions feed on Elk, mule deer and small mammals. Since not only mountain lions feed on them, there will be a lack of numbers in these mammals which will eventually lead in a corrupted food chains and ecosystems not to forget an extinction of other carnivorous and probably the over population of certain plants which might be harmful.

4- Even though Mesquites beans are able to be eaten by animals, however it have a lot of limitations, one including that mesquites are a competitive plants and so they harm and extinct the native plants. They compete with the plants for moisture and so farmers or ranchers call it nuisance. In Texas, the blamed the plants for lowering ground water table.this problem is occurring in Hawaii. a benefit of those plants is they can easily switch from utilizing one water source to the other. The plants also can regenerate from an existing root in the soil and so they have a high rate of repopulating. As a conclusion, the plants provide a good food storage for animals, yet they cause more harm to other native plants or any kinds of plant since they are known for their competitive nature.