Food Chains

What is an ecosystem?

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

What is a consumer?

a person or thing that eats or uses something.

What is another name for a producer?

autotrophs

Give two examples of decomposers.

bacteria and fungi

What is another name for a consumer?

heterotroph

What are three types of consumers and how are they different?

omnivores, carnivores, herbivores omnivores eat meat and plants carnivores eat meat herbivores eat plants

List three examples of producers.

plants, cyanobacteria, and phytoplankton.

Approximately what percent of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next?

10 percent

What is a food web? Compare and contrast food webs with food chains.

A food chain follows one path of energy and materials between species. A food web is more complex and is a whole system of connected food chains. In a food web, organisms are placed into different trophic levels. Trophic levels include different categories of organisms such as producers, consumers, and decomposers.

What is an herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore?

Animals that eat plants exclusively are herbivores, and animals that eat only meat are carnivores. When animals eat both plants and meat, they are called omnivores.

How does the amount of energy available change as you move from one trophic level to the next?

As little as 10 percent of the energy at any trophic level is transferred to the next level; the rest is lost largely through metabolic processes as heat.

What is the role of producers in the ecosystem?

As producers are the first level in a food system, they provide energy for the entire system.

Explain how energy moves through a food chain and a food web.

At the basic level there are plants that produce the energy, then it moves up to higher-level organisms like herbivores.

How are consumers classified into different groups?

Consumers are usually animals. Consumers cannot make their own food, so they have to eat other organisms.

What is the role of decomposers in the ecosystem?

Decomposers feed on dead things: dead plant materials such as leaf litter and wood, animal carcasses, and feces.

How can changes in one part of a food web affect another part?

Ecosystem effects

How is energy transferred as it flows through the trophic levels in a food chain or a food web?

Energy is passed up the food chain from one trophic level to the next. However, only about 10 percent of the total energy stored in organisms at one trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level.

What is a food chain? Where do you fit in on the food chain?

In the food chain, energy is transferred from one living organism through another in the form of food. There are primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and decomposers- all part of the food chain. This site also tells us that because of our eating habits, we are in two food chains- marine and land.

The following examples show how energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next. 10% of 5000 kcals is 500 kcals 10% of 300 kcals is 30 kcals 10% of 20 kcals is 2 kcals Describe the pattern you see.

It's doing division because the trophic level goes down so much.

What are the differences between producers, consumers, and decomposers?

Producers generate new material using energy from non-biological sources (e.g. sunlight). Consumers get energy by eating other life-forms. Decomposers get their energy from eating dead life-forms or the waste of still-living life-forms

How are producers, consumers, and decomposers categorized?

Producers, consumers, and decomposers are organisms within ecosystems that are classified based on how they gain their nutrition.

What happens to the energy that is not transferred from one trophic to the next?

The amount of energy at each trophic level decreases as it moves through an ecosystem.

What organisms are found in the first trophic level?

The first and lowest level contains the producers, green plants.

What impact do decomposers have on the food web?

The group of organisms called decomposers forms the final link in the food chain.