Farmers are managers of ecosystems. Consider a cornfield in Iowa. Describe five ways in which the cornfield ecosystem differs from the original prairie it replaced. What trophic level does the farmer fill?

Think about the following: plant species diversity, annual and perennial plants, animal species diversity, soil nutrients available, soil erosion, chemicals present in the environment, physical arrangement of plants, number of kinds of interactions between animals and plants, etc. Is a farmer's relationship to corn more similar to that of a grasshopper eating grass, or a cat eating a mouse?