Understanding the ecosystem food chains at Jingeri

The Jingeri Food web

By Tracy andSine Finnegan.

What makes up a food web?

A food web is made up of lots of food chains

They consist of Producers, Consumers and decomposers

They have large amounts of herbivores and carnivores

The producer: sun or energy is converted into living plants

The consumer: bird or koala, dingo or eagle

the decomposer: fungi and soil animals

Together all these are linked to create ecosystems

What parts of a food web make up

the Jingeri Ecosystem?

Primary producers

Energy from the sun

Energy stored in the plant and some escapes (heat)

Nutrients in the soil

Consumers

Herbivores Carnivores

Decomposers:Natures recyclers

minerals Manure/compost/dead things

Fungi:• Yeasts• Molds• Mushrooms

Soil animals:• worms• dung beetles• centipedes

Soils in which the primary producers grow

How does all that fit together???

Producers

Consumers Decomposer

s

What special ecosystems do we

have at Jingeri?

Glossy Black Cockatoo

Open Woodland/she-oak ecosystems

Allocasuarina = She-oak• Open grassy woodland• Mixed Eucalypts• Nests in large hollows in old trees• Glossy Blacks will only eat the cones

from the she-oaks• The cones are called “orts”• Under threat because of land clearing

of its food & habitat trees

Long Nosed Potoroo

Open Woodland Ecosystems• Open grassy eucalypt forests• With a diversity of native grass

species• Eats fungi, seeds and insects • Fungi is very important part of

their diet• Fungi essential to make healthy

soils• As a decomposer it is responsible

for Nutrient cycling into soils and plants

• Helps make the nutrients trapped inside dead plants and animals available for the plants and animals to use for energy.

• Under threat by predation from dogs, cats and foxes.

• Known to live in the same ecosystem as the Hastings River Mouse and the Eastern Bristle Bird.

Hastings River Mouse

Eastern Bristle Bird

KoalaEucalypt forest Ecosystems

• Eats only eucalyptus leaves from 19 out of 600 species of eucalypt trees.

• Relies on healthy ground cover between food and habitat trees to move safely on the ground.

• Threatened by habitat loss and predation from dogs and foxes.

• Suffers from a disease called Chlamydia which occurs in stressed animals.

• Koalas are becoming more and more threatened in SEQ because of humans

Fungi & Soil

animals: Nutrient &

carbon cycling

Soils

Plants:Water & carbon

cycling

Herbivores:

Consumers

Carnivores:

Predators Suns energ

y

Everything in an ecosystem is connected to everything

else:They are “interconnected”

What have we learned?• Everything in a foodweb is connected

• Lots of different foodwebs make up an Ecosystem

• Healthy soils are vital to make sure energy and nutrients are available plants

Food Chain

Food Web

Ecosystem

Thank you for listening

What kinds of ecosystems or

foodwebs are there in your back yard?