It is often quite tricky to ‘see’ all the relationships between the different plants and animals in an ecosystem and so scientists use the idea of a food web to show how different life in the Arctic is connected.

As you start to place the different organisms in place, you will start to see the web develop. The Arctic requires a balance between the different living things. If any of the individual animals or plants are affected by human activity or natural events, then the whole Arctic is affected.

Activity steps

1. Cut out the individual organisms and animals on the first page.
2. On the second page you will find the food web template. We have placed one organism, the copepod, in place. What do you think the copepod feeds on?
3. Begin to fill in the rest of the food web by placing the animals and organisms in place.
   
4. Once you have completed your food web, you can glue the pieces in place.
5. Consider what might happen if one of the animals were to become extinct - what would happen to the rest of the web?
6. Answer the summary questions about the small, but very important, copepod.

Activity Materials

• Downloaded file - Student Sheet: Arctic Food Web
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pen or pencil

Feeding relationships

When making the Arctic food web, it will be useful to understand some of the key words used to explain feeding relationships and the transfer of energy on the reef:

• Consumer: a living thing that relies on feeding on other living things for its energy, eg a shark is a consumer because it eats fish or a sea urchin is a consumer because it eats algae.
• Photosynthesis: the process by which producers create sugar (and therefore energy) from carbon dioxide and water using sunlight.
• Predator: an animal that eats other animals, eg a manta ray is a copepod predator.
• Prey: an animal that is eaten by another animal, eg a ringed seal is the prey of the polar bear.
• Producer: a living thing that produces energy via photosynthesis, eg algae is a producer because it creates energy from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water rather than eating something else.