Food Webs & Ecological Pyramids

Ecological Niche Ecological niche a function of what a species does in its ecosystem A species niche includes what it feeds on, what feeds on it, and how it behaves Each species is divided into either producers or consumers The consumers are then subdivided depending on what they eat

4 Types of Consumers Herbivore: animal that eats plants or other producers (ex. Deer) Carnivore : animal that eats other animals (ex. Fox) Omnivore animal that eats both plants and animals (ex. Humans, Bears) Scavenger: animal that feeds on remains of other organisms (ex. Rats )

Food Chains A food chain shows who eats who in an ecosystem and only one chain Ex. Seeds Hawk Squirrel Weasel

Trophic Levels Trophic level is the feeding level or the position of an animal/ organism is placed along a food chain. There are 4 trophic levels: Producers on the first/ lowest level they are called the producers (ex seeds) Herbivores on the second they are called primary consumers (ex squirrel) Carnivores on the third and forth they are called secondary or tertiary consumers (ex weasel or hawk)

Food Webs Food webs are many food chains combined together Each spices eat many different variety of foods and have a wide range of predators but have some of the same foods and predators

Ecological Pyramids The relationship between the trophic levels in an ecosystem There are three types of ecological pyramids energy, numbers, and biomass

Energy Pyramids An energy pyramid shows the energy loss and transfer between trophic levels The size of each layer represents the amount of energy at that trophic level This will helps explain why some species are more abundant then others Producers tend to have the highest energy since they take in sunlight and reproduce as pyramid goes up the less energy there is so by the time it goes to the top there isn’t much energy

Who is at the top? Humans !

What would happen if a species died out? The whole food wed would change With the loss of a species in the food web every organism in the food web would have to change there food chain, other species may also die out because there isn’t enough to go around, then other organisms are going to die and we as human won’t get the food we need.

Homefun!!  Read pg. 42-47 ( review) Pg 47 1,2,6, 8