Flora and fauna of Indian Institute of Technology Madras: To Identify The Food Chain or Food Web In IIT Campus

To Identify The Food Chain or Food Web In IIT Campus

AIM: To identify the food chain and food web in IIT Campus Chennai.

HYPOTHESIS: The series of organisms that take part in transferring food energy from;

Is called food chain.

Ø Green plants and algae that make food by photosynthesis are called Producers.

Ø Organisms that depend on producers for food either directly or indirectly are called consumers.

Ø Microorganisms like bacteria and fungi that breakdown the complex organic substances present in died plant and animals matter into simple inorganic substances are called decomposers.

Every step of food chain is called Trophic Level:-

Methodology:

· We fixed a day to explore IIT CAMPUS to find the food chain among the animals on 5^th November and 14^th November .We also had to take pictures of the animals and insects as evidence.

· The first day that is on 5^thNovember, we divided our team as Group A and Group B. Group A covered the locations near Vanavani School and Group B covered the locations in and near to stadium.

GROUP A

As we went to Vanavani school direction then we covered main gate areas also. We were much interested to take all photographs but it was not possible because the ¾ way we went, we didn’t even see a monkey!! But we saw some common insects, spotted deer and different kinds of mushroom.

GROUP B

We were given the location towards the stadium. We saw and took photos of many insects, deer’s, black buck, the African giant snail, crab, many butterflies and different coloured mushrooms. Most of the deer’s and black bucks were found near the students activity centre (sac).

· The 2^nd trip to IIT CAMPUS was not so interesting because of the climatic conditions of Chennai ,the SAC building was flooded because of the rain and the nearby people said that it is not safe to move inside. Then we moved to some tree’s area we found mongoose and white bird but unfornutely we couldn’t get the bird picture there. This time we went all together but got only 3-5 pictures.

· The 3^rd trip was on 24/11/15. We were of 5 people and we went to Champlast Cricket Ground and this was more adventure because of our teammate SURYA. He was more of adventurous mind took more photos inside the forest.

Observations:

In the flow of energy between the different trophic levels, it has been found that:

a) Green plants convert 1% of solar energy into food energy.

b) Only 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to another 90% energy is lost as heat, in doing work, in growth and reproduction.

c) As only 10% of energy at each trophic level is transferred to the next, food chain generally have only 3-4 trophic levels.

d) The number of organisms gradually decreases from one trophic level to another.

e) Food chain link with each other to form food web.

Result:

DATA ANALYSIS:

Problem faced:

To be frank we didn’t have more problems in doing this project. But getting some rare pictures was the only problem.

Remarkable Events:

This activity was really interesting and adventures. Though we people have been there in IIT for 10 years we haven’t went deep into these places. When we captured the pictures of snakes we felt so proud of ourselves. This activity helped us to learnt about different animals, plants and birds, even their prays and predators.

Acknowledgement:

1. MRS.R NANDHINI mam for this interesting project that made us feel awesome and adventurous trip. We have enjoyed a lot and learned more than that. So, thank you so much mam J

2. All parents who helped and supported us in completing our project. Thanking you also.

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