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Food Web Essay Guide

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Food Web Essay Guide

A new predator has arrived in a coastal ecosystem. Plan a clear, evidence-based essay explaining how a food web works and how a change can affect it. Use the passage on this page. Write in paragraphs and support your ideas with details.

Read: A coastal food web

At the edge of a rocky shore, sunlight helps seaweed grow. Small snails and sea urchins feed on the seaweed. Crabs eat snails, while large fish eat crabs and sea urchins. Seals eat large fish, and orcas can prey on seals. Not every feeding link is a straight line: several animals have more than one food source. When organisms die, decomposers such as bacteria break down their remains and return nutrients to the environment. Those nutrients help seaweed grow again. Imagine that the number of sea urchins suddenly rises. They may eat more seaweed, leaving less food and shelter for other organisms.

Plan with evidence

Use PEEL to build each body paragraph: Point, Evidence, Explain, Link. Base evidence on the passage.

1.Which opening best introduces an essay about this food web and draws the reader in?

What would happen if one small change on a rocky shore affected animals all the way up to an orca?
I am going to write about some animals.
Seaweed is green.

2.In your own words, define a food web. Include the idea that it connects feeding relationships.

3.Match each role to the correct description: producer; primary consumer; secondary consumer; decomposer.

Producer
Primary consumer
Secondary consumer
Decomposer

Eats a producer
Breaks down dead organisms and returns nutrients
Eats a primary consumer
Makes its own food, usually using sunlight

4.Use the passage to give one example of a producer, a primary consumer, and a secondary consumer in this ecosystem.

5.Write a PEEL plan for one body paragraph explaining why food webs show that organisms depend on one another. Include a point, a detail from the passage, an explanation, and a linking sentence.

6.The passage says the number of sea urchins rises. Explain one possible effect on seaweed and one possible effect on another organism. Use a feeding relationship described in the passage.

7.Choose the strongest evidence sentence for a paragraph about decomposers.

Decomposers are probably important.
The passage explains that bacteria break down dead organisms and return nutrients that help seaweed grow.
There are lots of things living near the shore.

8.Choose two linking words or phrases that could connect ideas in an explanation of cause and effect.

As a result; therefore
Once upon a time; suddenly
For example; such as

9.Write a possible topic sentence for a body paragraph explaining how decomposers support the coastal food web.

10.Which conclusion best brings an essay about the food web to a close without introducing an unrelated new idea?

Food webs connect organisms, so a change to one part can affect other parts of the ecosystem.
My favourite animal is the orca.
Next I will write about a different topic.

11.Write a short essay of three paragraphs: introduce the coastal food web, explain at least two feeding links or the role of decomposers, then conclude by explaining why a disturbance can matter. Use evidence from the passage and at least two linking words.