The ecosystem is an assorted web of food chains. Which species eats another species? Which species gets eaten? Today, we will take a look at a complicated food web and determine which of the species are predators only, preys only, and both predator and prey.<\/p>\n
We will be analysing a question on the topic of the Web of Life<\/strong><\/a> from the 2017 Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK) P6 SA2 Examination Paper<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Source: Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan \u2013 2017 P6 SA2 Examination Paper [Q35]<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n We have a food web shown above. Before we even try to identify the ‘Predator only’, the ‘Prey only’, and the ‘Predator and prey’, what I always advise my students to do is to first annotate who the ‘Food producer’ is and who the ‘King’ is.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf31 Who Is The Food Producer? <\/strong>\ud83c\udf31<\/p>\n A \u201cfood producer<\/strong>\u201d is a plant, and a plant is an organism that makes its own food. Therefore, it does not<\/strong> consume any organisms.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As such, how should the arrows look like for a food producer?<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccd Identifying The Food Producer<\/strong>\ud83d\udccd Who’s the food producer here? It is R<\/strong>.<\/p>\n As you can see, there are only arrows pointing away from it, no arrows pointing towards it. Therefore, we can conclude that R<\/strong> is the food producer. It’s the plant.<\/p>\n Are there any other food producers in the food web? All the other organisms have arrows pointing towards them, so they cannot be food producers.<\/p>\n Next, let’s identify the ‘king’. What is a ‘king’?<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc51 Who Is The King?<\/strong>\u00a0\ud83d\udc51<\/strong><\/p>\n A \u201cking<\/strong>\u201d is an animal that does not<\/strong> get eaten up by any other animals at all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Can I have arrows pointing away from a king?<\/p>\n What does this mean? That means the king is getting eaten up by another organism. This is not<\/strong> possible. Otherwise, it’s not a king.<\/p>\n Therefore, there should only be arrows pointing towards<\/strong> a king and nothing away from it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Let’s look at the food web above and figure out who this king is.<\/p>\n It is S<\/strong>, the one with arrows pointing only towards it and nothing away from it. S<\/strong> is the king.<\/p>\n Is S the only king? U<\/strong> is also another organism that has no arrows pointing away from it. U<\/strong> is also the king.<\/p>\n If you look at our options, we’re supposed to figure out who’s the ‘Predator only’, which means it is not a prey. If it is not a prey, it doesn’t get eaten up by any other animals as well. Isn’t that the king? Yes.<\/p>\n So, a ‘Predator only’ is the king. We have already figured out who the kings <\/span>are. They are S and U. Let’s go and choose S and U<\/span> under \u2018Predator only\u2019, which are options (2) and (3).<\/p>\n Next, what’s a ‘Prey only’? A ‘Prey only’ means that it is not a predator. If it is not a predator, it doesn’t eat any other animal. What does it eat then? It only feeds on plants.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf3f Who Are Preys Only?<\/strong>\u00a0\ud83c\udf3f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018Preys only\u2019 are \u201cherbivores<\/strong>.\u201d These are animals that eat only plants<\/strong>. They don’t eat any animals.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Hence, to find the ‘Prey only’, the trick is to identify the herbivores.<\/p>\n Let’s identify all the herbivores. Herbivores are animals that feed on food producers, so they have to be feeding on R.<\/p>\n Is T a herbivore? Yes. It’s only feeding on a plant, R.<\/p>\n Is P a herbivore? Yes. P is only eating on the food producer, R.<\/p>\n Is Q a herbivore? Yes. Q is feeding only on R.<\/p>\n Is V a herbivore? V is indeed feeding on R. However, is it considered a herbivore? No.\u00a0Because it is also feeding on another animal.<\/p>\n That means V is an omnivore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccd Who Are Omnivores?<\/strong>\ud83d\udccd<\/strong><\/p>\n “Omnivores<\/strong>”\u00a0are animals that feed on both plants and animals \u2195\ufe0f<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n How about W? Is W feeding on R? No. Since it doesn’t feed on a plant at all, you can conclude that W is a carnivore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccdWho Are Carnivores?<\/strong>\ud83d\udccd How about U? Does U feed on R? No. We can conclude that U is a carnivore.<\/p>\n How about S? Does S feed on R? No, so S is a carnivore.<\/p>\n We have then figured out who the herbivores are, or the ‘Preys only’. They are P<\/strong>, Q<\/strong>, and T<\/strong>, which is option (2).<\/p>\n Source: Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan \u2013 2017 P6 SA2 Examination Paper [Q35]<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Next, we have to figure out which animals are both a ‘Predator and prey’. If it is a predator and prey, it gets eaten up by another animal, meaning it’s a prey. At the same time, it also feeds on another animal, so it is considered to be a predator.<\/p>\n If it feeds on only plants, can it be considered a predator? No, because in order to be considered a predator, you need to be feeding on an animal.<\/p>\n Which groups are definitely not a prey and a predator at the same time? Herbivores are definitely not a predator. If it’s not a predator, it cannot be considered a ‘Predator and a prey’. Hence, we have to exclude all the herbivores. Which other organisms can we exclude?<\/p>\n Can a food producer be a predator and a prey? No, a food producer is not a predator. It is not a prey in the first place. We can then exclude them.<\/p>\n There’s one more group that we can exclude. It is an organism that’s a ‘Predator only’ because if it’s a ‘Predator only’, it is definitely not a prey. Who\u2019s that? The kings.<\/p>\n Basically, a ‘Predator and a prey’ is everything except herbivores, food producers, and kings. Which are these organisms?<\/p>\n Can we count S and U? No, S and U are the kings.<\/p>\n Can we count T? No, T is a herbivore.<\/p>\n Can we count R? No, R is the food producer.<\/p>\n Can we count P and Q? No, because P and Q are herbivores.<\/p>\n So, we are left with V<\/strong> and W<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Option <\/span>(2)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Looking at a food web can be daunting. The possibilities may seem endless!<\/p>\n But following our discussion, I hope you are able to understand the thought processes in analysing a food web and determining its food producers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.<\/p>\n The best thing about these tips is that they can also be applied to other Web of Life questions that involve food webs!<\/p>\n Check out our other articles on the Web of Life and continue to keep a lookout for more articles! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row disabled_on=”off|off|off” admin_label=”CCI” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ custom_margin=”0px||” custom_padding=”0px||” global_module=”239753″ saved_tabs=”all” collapsed=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_divider color=”#898989″ admin_label=”Divider” _builder_version=”4.16″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/The-Pique-Lab-CCI-Science-Course-CTA.png” align=”center” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” admin_label=”CCI” _builder_version=”4.16″ z_index_tablet=”500″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#333333″ text_font_size=”18px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n If you like our methodology, we’ve some upcoming workshops:<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ text_font=”geomanist-medium||||||||” text_text_color=”#f44a4a” text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”2em” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n P3 Complete Concept Integration\u2122 Science Course<\/strong><\/a> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this article, we will be analysing a question on Web of Life from the 2017 Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK) P6 SA2 Examination Paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":243825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,47,54],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"modified_by":"Jaimie Aberia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243388"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244450,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243388\/revisions\/244450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243388"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=243388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read Also:<\/h3>\n
\n
Let’s Take A Look At This Question<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-02.png.png\")
<\/p>\nThought Process<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
<\/strong>
\u2934\ufe0f Food producers should only have arrows pointing away<\/strong> from them, not towards<\/strong> them at all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-03.png-400x51.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-04.png.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-05.png-400x62.png\")
<\/p>\nPredator Only<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-07.png-400x62.png\")
<\/p>\nPrey Only<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-08.png.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-09.png-400x79.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
<\/strong>
\u201cCarnivores<\/strong>\u201c are animals that feed on meat only<\/strong> (like animals). They don’t feed on plants at all \ud83c\udf56<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-10.png-400x20.png\")
<\/p>\nPredator and Prey<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepiquelab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Web-Of-Life-Who-Are-The-Predators-And-Preys_-11.png-400x73.png\")
<\/p>\nSuggested Answer<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
P4 Complete Concept Integration\u2122 Science Course<\/strong><\/a>
P5 Complete Concept Integration\u2122 Science Course<\/strong><\/a>
P6 Complete Concept Integration\u2122 Science Course<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n