Student Science Journal

6.4.1

Resource Availability Affects Populations

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Name________________

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Episode 1 - Deer Populations

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What questions do you have about the data in the above graph?

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Habitat

What Animals Need to Live

To survive, animals need food, water, and a safe home.

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Food is essential for all wildlife. Some animals eat parts of plants such as nuts, berries, leaves, and twigs. These animals, called herbivores, can live only where the plants they need for food grow. Deer and rabbits are examples of herbivores.

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Other animals eat insects, mice, rabbits, and other animals. Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores; they are only able to live where they can catch their food. Wolves are carnivores, as are hawks and owls.

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Animals that eat both plants and animals are called omnivores. These animals, such as raccoons and opossums, can live in many places.

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In addition to food, animals need water. Puddles, springs, streams, and ponds provide drinking water for all animals. Some animals can get all the water they need from their food and from dew.

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Cover is anything that provides an animal and its young with protection from weather, and more importantly, enemies. A rabbit, for example, hides under bushes when a fox or hawk is nearby. Prairie dogs take cover in underground burrows. Some animals use trees for shelter.

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Along with cover, animals need a certain amount of space. Large animals, like the black bear, may wander several miles in search of food. Some small animals, on the other hand, may never travel more than a few hundred feet from their homes. Each animal must be able to find all the food, water, and shelter it needs within the space it travels.

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Habitat is the physical area where an animal lives. An animal’s habitat has everything it needs to live. The forest is the habitat of the gray squirrel. Within the forest the squirrel builds nests in hollow trees and eats nuts, tree flowers, and buds. A marsh is the habitat of muskrats and many kinds of ducks. Other habitats include fields and meadows, lakes and ponds, streams and rivers, and deserts and prairies.

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6.4.1

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“Oh Deer!” Simulation

Deer Population and Habitat Availability Over Time

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Record the number of deer and habitat at the beginning of each round.

Year

Deer and Habitat Quantities

KEY

• Deer
• Habitat

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Using the graph you created as evidence, reason about the patterns between resources and the fluctuations in deer populations.

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Construct an explanation of why the population of deer changed over time. What caused the deer population to fluctuate? What were the effects of resource availability on the deer population? Use specific data in your explanation. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Episode 2 - How Many Hummingbirds?

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Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds Nectar-Producing Flowers

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Population Data Collected at the

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

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What patterns do you see in the data? Is there a connection between the number of hummingbirds and the number of nectar-producing flowers? What causes the hummingbird population to fluctuate? Use data to support your answer.

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KEY:

• Hummingbirds

• Nectar-Producing Flowers

Episode 3 - Going, Going, Gone

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Study the table.

What patterns do you notice? What questions do you have about the patterns you observe?

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Historical Events

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1849: Utah Lake tributaries diverted. As a result many fish are directed into canals and

carried onto farmer’s fields rather than back to the lake. This practice has continued

into recent times.

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1872: A dam is constructed across the Jordan River (Utah Lake’s only outlet).

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1886: Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1893: Black bullhead (Ameiurus melas) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1890’s: Tributary rivers drained in an effort to water farmer’s dry fields. Thousands of tons

of native fish are left out of water.

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1890: Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1906: “We found the lake trout [Bonneville cutthroat trout] had done poorly, because of low

and consequently muddy water; and the carp, which have thriven immensely, have

eaten off the mosses and similar growth along the bottom of the lake, so that the

trout have not had enough to eat. Carp are a good deal like the English sparrow —

once they get into a place they are there to say,” E.A. Tullian, Superintendent of the

United States Fish Commission, 1901.

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1913: More than 200,000 acres of land are being irrigated. So much water is drained from

Utah Lake that aquatic vegetation is annihilated, and millions of fish die from overcrowding

and insufficient oxygen supply.

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1919: Channel catfish (Ictalurus puctatus) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1928: Last specimen of Utah Lake sculpin collected, it is now considered extinct.

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1930’s: Utah Lake suffers a severe drought and shrivels to an alarming average depth of

one foot.

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1932: Last Bonneville cutthroat trout captured in Utah Lake.

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1952: Walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1956: White bass (Morone chrysops) introduced to Utah Lake.

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1986: June sucker are added to the Endangered Species List.

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1995: Use of gill nets to catch fish for Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) monitoring program

is discontinued in order to reduce the risk of harming native fish.

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1999: A significant study reveals that wastewater treatment plants deposited more

phosphorous into Utah Lake than any other source (149.5 tons per year).

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2002: June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program formed.

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June Sucker Population

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What caused the decline of the June Sucker population? Construct an explanation of the effects of resource availability on the June sucker population.

Use evidence from the data tables and historical data to support your answer.

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Episode 4 - Mountain Plovers and Prairie Dogs

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Mountain Plovers

The Mountain Plover is a small, brown and white bird found in the western Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states. It is a grassland species that prefers disturbed prairie or semi-desert habitat. The female plover typically creates two nests. The male incubates one while the female incubates the other. Parents stay with the chicks for about 30 days. Mountain Plovers prefer building nests in active prairie dog colonies. These prairie dog habitats provide the optimum height and density of vegetation for Mountain Plover nests. In addition, prairie dogs’ alarm to the colony about approaching predators also warns nesting Mountain Plovers. Mountain Plovers feed primarily on crickets, beetles, and ants.

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Prairie dog populations are often decimated by sylvatic plague. How might that information relate to the graph of Mountain Plover nests?

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Create a line graph showing the population trend in prairie dog populations you would expect from studying the graph of Mountain Plover nests. Do not worry about actual numbers of prairie dogs. Create a trend line showing the fluctuations in population expected by the data.

Explain how you used the graph of Mountain Plover nests to create your line graph of prairie dog populations. How did the number of prairie dogs affect the number of Mountain Plovers?

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