Food Chains and Food Webs 1-3 Notes Food Chains and Food Webs

Everything you do requires energy.

Energy The energy you use is chemical energy, which comes from the food you eat.

Energy is vital to all living things. Most of the energy on Earth comes directly or indirectly from the Sun.

Producers Producer- an organism that captures energy and stores it in food as chemical energy.

Producers Plants and other organisms capture energy from the Sun through photosynthesis.

Plants are the most common producers on land. In water, photosynthetic bacteria and algae are the most common producers.

Producers In the deep ocean, organisms use chemicals released by underwater vents instead of sunlight to convert energy to a usable form.

Consumer- an organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms. Consumers Consumer- an organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms.

Consumers Consumers are classified by their position in a feeding relationship. A feeding relationship starts with a producer, followed by one or more consumers.

Consumers Primary Consumer- the first link between producers and the rest of the ecosystem. Example: Grasshoppers and antelope that eat grasses.

Secondary Consumer- eats the primary consumers. Examples: Wolves that eat the antelopes and birds that eat the grasshoppers.

Tertiary Consumer- eats the secondary consumers. Example: a falcon that eats the bird.

Scavenger- a consumer that feeds on dead animals. Consumers Scavenger- a consumer that feeds on dead animals. Example: Vulture

Decomposers Decomposers- organisms that break down dead plant and animal matter into simpler compounds.

Decomposers are the clean up crew of an ecosystem.

Food Chains Food chain- describes the feeding relationship between a producer and a SINGLE CHAIN of consumers.

Food Chains The arrows in a food chain represent the flow of energy from organism to organism.

Food Webs Food web- a model of the feeding relationships between many different consumers and producers in an ecosystem.

Food Web Food webs show that sometimes an organism can be classified as more than one kind of consumer-both primary and secondary, for example.

Energy Pyramid Energy pyramid- a model that shows the amount of energy available at each feeding level of an ecosystem.

Energy Pyramid The first level is the producers, second level the primary consumers, and so on. Usable energy decreases as it moves from producers up through the consumers.

Energy Pyramid The amount of available energy gets smaller and smaller the farther up the pyramid you go.

Review 1. How are decomposers important in an ecosystem? They make atmospheric nitrogen available to plants in usable form. They convert organic matter into more complex compounds. They are an important source of food for scavengers. They break down organic matter into simpler compounds.

Review 2. Which type of organisms represents the level where a food chain begins? Primary Consumers Secondary Consumers Tertiary Consumers Producers

3. The purpose of the arrows in the food web is to show Energy flow Review 3. The purpose of the arrows in the food web is to show Energy flow Tertiary consumers Level of organisms Producers