Forest Food Webs

by Paul Fleisher

Book Overview

An introduction to the food chains found in forests.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822567296
• ISBN13: 9780822567295
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Lerner Publications
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.6" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 7 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 4

Customer Reviews

This is a very interesting and useful introduction to forest food webs to the younger student!

Forests are very unique environments and the activity in them is complex. In a forest there is what is called a "food web." The energy from the sun goes directly to plants and through them goes indirectly to plants eaters, then to meat eaters and finally to decomposers or "nature's recyclers." It is a fascinating process that keeps the forest vibrant and alive. There are many different kinds of trees and plants that grow in a forest, but there are other life forms that seem to be hidden in there. If you look closely, you can see it teeming with insect life, you can see animal life now and then, but things like "bacteria are much too small for us to see." In this book you will learn about "many food chains" in the forest. You will learn about photosynthesis, the nutrients in soil, how plants absorb nutrients, the forest canopy, small plants that live in the understory of the forest, animals and insects that consume plants (herbivores), how animals "help to move plants' seeds from place to place," forest carnivores (including birds, toads and insects), forest omnivores, decomposers, destructive forces in a forest and what people use forests for. This is a very interesting and useful introduction to forest food webs to the younger student. The book immediately encourages interactivity by asking the student to become a "word detective" and search for fifteen words in the text and decipher their meanings. The text has an excellent progressive flow and vibrant photographs and illustrations. For example there is a photograph of a toad eating a huge earthworm. In the back of the book is a glossary, an index, lesson suggestions and additional recommended book and website resources. Do you know what an understory is? If not, perhaps you need to read this book!