1. Kelleigh HuberBiology I Period 4 The Frog

2. Niche of the Bullfrog Bullfrog; Rana catesbeiana

Bullfrogs live in ponds, rivers, and streams that have slow-moving water. They do not necessarily have to live in the water, but they leave near the waters edge, for protection from predators and for egg laying. Jumping into nearby water acts as an escape route from certain animals. Bullfrogs specifically are more active at night.

The frog depends on a couple different things for food. Frogs eat mainly insects, but their diet expands up to small birds, turtles, and even snakes. Great Blue Herons and raccoons, along with big snakes depend on frogs for survival.

3. Niche of the Frog (Continued)

Frogs are amphibians and contain webbed appendages. They can grow to be about 3-6 inches in body length, and then an additional 7-10 inches for their legs. Their eardrums are located right behind the eye.

Frogs have an axial skeleton (the skull and vertebrae but they lack ribs.

Bullfrogs live longer in warmer weather, and like to keep moist.

Bullfrogs are also useful to humans as a minor food source, mainly for people in the southwestern part of the United States. Frog legs are usually the legs of the American Bullfrog.

4. Reproduction of the Bullfrog

Frogs mate in the spring, and they rarely interact with other frogs except for mating.

They lay about 20,000 eggs at a time, and they are laid in the water. The eggs attach to plants located under the water.

Eggs soon hatch into tadpoles, and remain tadpoles for about 4-6 months, growing about 6 inches, although this process could last much longer. Depending on how long the tadpole remains a tadpole will determine how big the adult frog will be.

Both the eggs and tadpoles are protected from predators in the water, because they taste bad.

5. Food Chain of A Frog The role of the worms is to act as a source of food for baby birds. Worms are usually decomposers, breaking down things such as bacteria and plants, and returning the nutrients to the soil. Birds are the next link, they eat the worms and are omnivores, because they eat plants and animals. Frogs are carnivores, they only eat meat, and Great Blue Herons are omnivores, and are the fourth consumer of the chain. Primary Consumer Omnivore (Worm) Secondary Consumer Omnivore (Bird) Tertiary Consumer Carnivore (Frog) Consumer Omnivore (Great Blue Heron) 6. Food Web of A Bullfrog Decomposer Producer Omnivore Carnivore Producer Carnivore Herbivore Carnivore Carnivore A Food Web shows how all of the given species are related in an ecosystem, depending on consumers, producers, and decomposers. 7. Stream Quality Data & Analysis

The stream conditions of Powdermill Run were quite healthy.

The number of organisms in each class that were found indicates that the stream was healthy. If you compare the numbers that were found for each, you can tell that the stream was not polluted and that many organisms survive in it.

The stream conditions affect my organism because the water was cool and clear, so frogs would be able to swim and as tadpoles they would be able to eat and breathe.

8. Water Testing Data & Analysis

The health of the ecosystem is dependent upon factors such as oxygen, phosphate and nitrate levels, and the pH level. These affect the ecosystem by determining the quality of the stream, and therefore the number of organisms present in or near the stream.

Oxygen should be a middle to high number, because the more dissolved oxygen the better for organisms. The pH level is supposed to be neutral, about a 6.5 or 7. Phosphates and nitrates should remain 0 or very low.

Animals that live near the stream would be better off than animals near the marsh or mine because the quality of the stream is much better. There is more oxygen present, and there is little pollution.

9. Water Testing Data & Analysis (Continued)

Temperature and turbidity also affect the ecosystem in many ways. Temperature, depending on how cool, could contain more oxygen in it than warm waters. Powdermill Run contained more dissolved oxygen because the water was cooler and the stream is shaded by trees.

Turbidity affects the ecosystem because turbidity is the clarity of the water. If the water is cloudy, many organisms will suffer. Organisms that have gills could end up with clogged gills and therefore be unable to breathe. Also it could affect how much food organisms eat because certain prey would be unable to be caught and consumed due to the cloudy water.

10. Positive and Negative Factors

. The current conditions of the stream, mine and marsh waters would affect frogs in many ways. Mine waters would affect them because they live near the water s edge, so the acid and orange color would negatively affect them. The stream would positively affect the frog s offspring because they would have a healthy environment with lots of dissolved oxygen and a low turbidity.

The pollution of PA streams negatively impacts the riparian zone. It affects the turbidity of the water, the pH, and even the temperature. By doing this, it affects not only the organisms that live in or near the water, but also the predators that want to hunt these organisms. If the number of surviving offspring from a frog is low, the birds and snakes who hunt the frogs later on will eventually die off from starvation because there are not enough frogs to be consumed. All of the problems could be due to simple pollution in the water , and we can help this pollution problem. By not littering and reducing the amount of fossil fuels, we can do a lot to help the riparian zone.

11. Conclusion

I learned that everything in the ecosystem depends on specific little things. For example, the pH level in a stream can make all the difference, because it can affect organisms that are living in the stream, but then it can affect the organisms that are their predators too.

While researching the frog, I found it interesting that a simple frog could make all the difference in an ecosystem. Frogs are an important part of food chains and food webs, and without them, others would suffer.

I would like to research pollution a little further.

12. Work Cited 1.) Frog .Encycolpedia Americana.http://go.grolier.com 2.) Bullfrog; Rana Catesbeiana .Organism Menu http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bullfrog/htm 3.)Pa among the top states in tackling waterway pollution: Its No. 2 in waterway sections restored to health. Tennessee is first.TimesLeader.Sweeny, Rory http://find.galegroup.com