Building an Energy Pyramid + Analyzing Ecosystem Problems

Thanks to each student for researching their ecosystem and finding producers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers that represent the ecosystem. As a final draft in your magazine, each of your ecosystems should have a diagram that represents the energy flow through various organisms.

Generic Energy Pyramid...


What will yours look like? How will it fit with the overall theme of your magazine? Please include images that represent these organisms and connections between various species. Is one thing eating another?

On Monday, please bring in your 99.9% complete (ready for your magazine) diagram.


Magazine Groups are also working on real-world case studies. Problems have been identified. What are your solutions?

Case Study:Southern Taklimakan Desert

Villages in Taklimakan are threatened by mobile sand dunes caused by overgrazing, salinized (salty) soil from irrigated farming (the area is flat and has poor drainage) and over exploitation of fuel wood. Natives of the targeted region – four counties in Hotan Prefecture – are chiefly farmers and herders. However, their strategies for farming, herding, and collecting fuel are destroying their homes and land which are literally swept away by dunes. What should they do?

Case Study: Fuzhou

Fuzhou is a crowded city of 2.5 million people in the southwest of China, on the Bamai Canal, that had 100 miles of open sewer running through their city, alongside temples, restaurants, and schools, and into the Ming River. The canal, which had wastewater running directly into it, was grey, laden with sewage and garbage, and emitted a powerful stench. This pollution was not only unpleasant to the eyes and nose, but was a health hazard, and prevented basic animal life—fish, birds, and butterflies—from inhabiting the area. What should they do?