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RECREATION AND EDUCATION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

LESSON 5 TEST

THE MAGICAL POWERS OF THE ESTUARIES

BY BOB BERGEN

PROFESSOR OF SCIENCE, RETIRED

AND TEEN ANGLER MENTOR

QUESTIONS

* The black dot does NOT represent the correct answer.  You have to choose the correct answers to all the questions

1. Although electricity is a form of energy, and we humans talk about "making electricity," is that really a true statement if you take into account the First Law?

a) Yes. We make electricity lots of different ways. Matter of fact, you can even light a small bulb using two wires and a potato (of all things!)
b) No. The First Law says that any time you change energy from one kind to another, you lose most of it.
c) No. The First Law says you can neither create nor destroy energy
d) Yes. You can get all the electricity you want just by plugging in to a wall socket.

2. We use the idea of a food chain to illustrate simple "who eats whom" ideas, but the reality is that food webs give a more accurate description, because

a) they are more complex
b) they do a better job of showing that a given predator may eat more than one type of prey
c) they are easier to follow to see who eats whom
d) spiders are involved in every food chain

3. Emergent plants provide much of the food for critters living in the estuary. They do this through

a) providing food for grazing animals which eat the living leaves and stems
b) providing attachment places for animals and other plants which live on them
c) providing hiding places for many of the smaller animals
d) providing dead leaves and stems, which form the base of multiple food chains

4. The Second Law says that energy is lost every time it is transformed from one kind to another. A rough rule of thumb followed by biologists and ecologists is that 90% of the energy is lost with each transformation. Let's say that you eat one pound of beef in a day. If that beef came from a cow which only ate grass, how many pounds of grass did it take to give you that pound of beef?

a) 1/10
b) 1
c) 10
d) 100

5. Another rough rule of thumb followed by ecologists says that the more different kinds of species in an ecosystem, the more stable the ecosystem. Put another way, the more steps in a food chain, the more species can exist. Using the example given in the article, how many steps are in a food chain which starts with dead cordgrass stems or mangrove leaves and ends with you eating a striper or a snook? Count the sun as Step One, because it provides the initial source of energy.

a) 3
b) 5
c) 6
d) 8

6. Let's carry this idea to another level. Suppose you eat one pound of snook or striper - and if it's deep fried in bite-sized chunks, I'll bet you can! Go backwards through that same food chain that starts with dead leaves or stems. let's assume you caught your fish on a smaller fish, like a mullet or a croaker. Now work your way back through the different steps in that chain, remembering that 90% of the energy (or biomass) is lost at each step, and figure out how many pounds of dead leaves and stems it took to produce that pound of fish you just devoured in ten minutes flat!

a) 100,000
b) 10,000
c) 1,000
d) 100

Notes concerning this characterization of estuaries:

Please remember that food relationships among different organisms living in any estuary are much more complex than simple food chains or even food webs can show. I once worked out, based on measured annual leaf fall, that it took 2,000 acres of mangrove trees to produce that one pound of snook (mmmm) I just ate. I have a hard time believing that, and the only realistic answer I can give you is that estuaries are so complex we still do not understand all the relationships going on all the time. Remember that dead leaves and stems are not the only ways that producers provide food, and that dead leaves and stems represent only the emergent plant community. How many other producer communities are involved in a healthy estuary? You know!

Estuaries are magical places, after all.

 

Need to Review......Lesson 5 Estuaries Article

 

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