Food Chains/Food Web

Where do plants get energy?

From the Sun

Secondary Consumer

Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. They are carnivores (meat-eaters) and omnivores (animals that eat both animals and plants).

Food Chain

A sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition.

Herbivore

An organism that only eats plants

What travels through a food web or chains?

Energy

What happens to energy as we move from step to step in a chain or web?

Energy is lost

End of Web

Food chains "end" with top predators, animals that have little or no natural enemies.

2 food making processes.

Photosynthesis and Chemosynthesis

What is meant by trophic levels?

Position it hold in a food wed

Herbivores are also called

Primary Consumer

Food chains start with what?

Producers

What is the ultimate energy for all life on Earth?

Sun

Food Web

The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy, from the sun or hydrothermal vent to a top predator. As the energy flows from organism to organism, energy is lost at each step. A network of many food chains is called a food web.

Food Chain Detail

The chain usually starts with the primary energy source, usually the Sun or water. The next link is is an organism that makes its own food from the primary source of energy(Ex. Plants make their own food from sunlight and chemosynthetic bacteria that make their food energy from chemicals in hydrothermal vents) These are called autotrophs or primary producers. 2 herbivore - these are called secondary consumers -- an example is a snake that eats rabbits. In turn, these animals are eaten by larger predators -- an example is an owl that eats snakes. The tertiary consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers -- an example is a hawk that eats owls. Each food chain ends with a top predator and animal with no natural enemies (like an alligator, hawk, or polar bear).

Primary Consumer

They are animals that eat primary producers; they are also called herbivores (plant-eaters).

Primary Producer

They are the base of every food chain - these organisms are called autotrophs. (organisms that make their own food from sunlight and/or chemical energy from deep sea vents)

Tertiary Consumer

They eat secondary consumers.

Quaternary Consumer

They eat tertiary consumers.

What happens to the dead?

When any organism dies, it is eventually eaten by detrivores (like vultures, worms and crabs) and broken down by decomposers (mostly bacteria and fungi), and the exchange of energy continues.