Problem: You are planning to travel to the planet Mars to be a member of a colony there. The colony needs to be self-sufficient for production of food, and will also need to maintain a stable environment with acceptable oxygen and low carbon dioxide concentrations. Assume that you will have access to water, that the colony will be housed in a gas-tight "bubble" through which sunlight may penetrate, and that the temperature in the "bubble" will be acceptable for life.

Required:

(1) What basic type of biological organisms must definitely be taken with you to Mars if you would like your colony to survive indefinitely?

(2) Explain the source of energy for the food you will need to grow there.

(3) Explain the role of the very important organisms you needed to bring (discussed above) in a food chain, and how they contribute to both the flow of energy as well as the maintenance of stable atmospheric conditions that allow life as we know it to exist.

(4) What do we call that type of organism in a food web.

(5) What do we call the organisms that consume it?