This activity demonstrates the interconnectedness of life in an oak woodland ecosystem. Each student represents a different species of plant or animal and uses string to connect to each other, forming multiple food chains and a greater food web. The connections create a visualization that shows how living things in a habitat depend on each other.

Overview

An oak is a remarkably generous plant. It supports more species of wildlife than any other tree. Oaks are keystone plants which means they are essential to the lives of most other living things in an oak woodland habitat. Without oaks in the landscape, birds, butterflies, bees, mammals and other wildlife would not survive.

A single oak launches a tremendous food web. All parts of the oak provide nourishment. For example, acorns are a high energy food rich in protein, carbohydrates and fats, feasted upon by insects, birds, deer, squirrels and other mammals. Deer and rodents nibble oak twigs and leaves. Oak leaves also feed hundreds of species of hungry caterpillars (butterfly and moth larvae). Its woody twigs and branches are consumed by burrowing insects. Mice strip bark off saplings while some birds sip sap from tissue beneath the bark. Oak catkins, the pollen-bearing part of its flower, are an energy source for birds, insects, mice and squirrels. Pocket gophers, beetles and other insects consume oak roots.

The oak provides other ecosystem services besides food. Its canopy, made up of leaves and branches, offers cool shade in the heat of summer. Birds, squirrels, and bats are among the creatures that live, breed, and rest there. Lizards, scorpions and other arachnids and insects hunt and hide in the crevices of the oak’s gnarly bark. Oak leaf litter insulates the ground under the tree, making a moist home for a world of snails, slugs, salamanders, millipedes, centipedes, beetles, larvae and more.

Each oak tree contributes mightily to the abundance and diversity of an oak woodland habitat.

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