Understanding and diagramming how energy moves throughout an ecosystem Discuss here the fact that we often compartmentalize our world—focusing on one thing as though it existed in a vacuum. Ecology is about broadening your focus and realizing the interconnectedness of everything! Mr. Roes Living Environment

Where does our energy come from? Like every other heterotroph, we get energy from the things that we eat. When we digest food, we break it down into smaller chemical elements and then absorb the useful molecules. Track down the source: where did those molecules come from? What did you eat for breakfast this morning? In most every case, the food that we eat can ultimately be tracked down to plants. Introduce abiotic and biotic factors

Vocabulary: Producer: A producer is an autotroph—an organism that makes its own energy. It produces the chemical energy for the entire community. Consumer: An organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms. It is a heterotroph. In an ecosystem, you are either a producer or a consumer! Introduce abiotic and biotic factors

Vocabulary: Consumer: An organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms. Primary Consumer: The organisms that eat the producers. Ex: Rabbits. Secondary Consumer: The organisms that eat the primary consumers. Ex: A Coyote Tertiary Consumer: The organisms that eat the secondary consumer Quaternary Consumer: The organisms that eat the tertiary consumer If students ask: Quinary= Fifth Senary= Sixth Septenary= seventh Octonary= Eighth Nonary= Ninth Denary= Tenth

Vocabulary: Herbivore: Organisms that get all of their energy from eating plants. Ex: Cow, Deer, Caterpillar. Carnivore: Organisms that get all of their energy from eating animals. Ex: Lion, Tiger Omnivore: Organisms that get their energy from eating plants or animals. Ex: Birds, dogs, Humans,

Vocabulary: Detrivore: Organisms that get all of their energy from eating dead organisms. Ex: Earthworms, Snails, or Crabs. Decomposer: Organisms that get their energy from breaking down organic matter into inorganic matter. Ex: Fungi and bacteria.

Vocabulary: Flora: The plant life of a particular region. Fauna: The animal life of a particular region.

Building ideas: Photoautotrophic- make their own energy from sunlight. The producers give all of the molecular energy to all of the organisms in the ecosystem in that particular area. Photoautotrophic- make their own energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis Chemoautotrophic-make their own energy from chemicals. Chemosynthesis No matter how they do it, the producers make the organic energy for all other life in the ecosystem.

Building ideas: Energy moves through an ecosystem in only one direction. The energy from the producers moves throughout the ecosystem. One of the ways we can diagram the transfer of this energy is with the use of a food chain. A food chain always begins with the producers, and then moves to the various consumers.

Make a food chain: A different organism must go in each circle. In three easy steps. A different organism must go in each circle. Represent one organism eating another organism through arrows between the circles. Producers must always be in the first circle. (On the left)

Make a food chain: Lizard Wheat Cats Mice Hawks Grasshoppers Snakes

Show off your food chain:

Is this an effective diagram?

Food Webs: Unlike a food chain, a food web allows for multiple routes. This is logical because organisms typically get their energy from many different sources.

Make your own food web: A different organism must go in each circle. In three easy steps. A different organism must go in each circle. Producers must always be in the first circle. (At the bottom) Add multiple arrows from each circle to everything that might eat it, and move up through the food web.

Make your own food web: Wheat Lizard Mice Hawks Cats Snakes Grasshoppers

Show off your food web:

Some more Vocabulary: Trophic Level: A step in a food chain or web. The first trophic level will always be composed of producers. The second trophic level will be the primary consumers. The third trophic level will be composed of the secondary consumers. The fourth trophic level will be composed of the tertiary consumers.

Dynamics of Energy Transfer: Only about ten percent of the amount of energy that an organism takes in during the course of its life will be passed on to an organism that consumes it. Since such a small percent of the energy is transferred, the amount of producers needed in an ecosystem to support all of the consumers is very high. Likewise, the number of primary consumers is much higher than the amount of secondary consumers.

Energy pyramids

Biomass pyramids

Pyramid of Numbers