Roles in the Ecosystem 1

Producers Autotrophic Make food energy (carbohydrates/calories) from sun, water, carbon dioxide Support the entire food chain Plants Algae (phytoplankton) Microorganisms 2

Consumers Heterotrophs Needs to ingest carbohydrate energy (cannot make it) Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores Play the Animal Diet Game! tgame.htm tgame.htm zooplankton Mooo! 3

Decomposers Heterotrophic, saprophytes, detrivores These get the energy left in the cells of organisms that have died Bacteria Fungi Protists Invertebrates 4

Identification Game Producer? Consumer? Decomposer? idscorner/games/producersconsumersgame.htm idscorner/games/producersconsumersgame.htm 5

Trophic Levels “Trophic”: From Ancient Greek (trophikos), “‘pertaining to food or nourishment’” In ecology, the feeding level of an organism (primary consumer, secondary consumer, etc) is called it’s trophic level.ecology Most ecosystems ultimately rely upon the Sun for energy and upon photosynthetic organisms to harness that energy.ecosystemsphotosynthetic There are only a few exceptions to this, such as chemosynthetic archaea which derive energy from the break down of sulfur rich compounds around deep sea hydrothermal vents and acid mine drainage. chemosyntheticarchaea hydrothermal ventsacid mine drainage 6

Energy conversions Because a fraction of the energy used by a level is converted to biomass, etc. less energy is available at higher levels. The biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given trophic level. Note the biomass decrease at each level. Why? 7

Food Chains Food Chain Game m/content/animals/kidscorner/ga mes/foodchaingame.htm 8

Food Webs Identify the: 1. Producers 2. Primary Consumers 3. Secondary Consumers 4. Herbivores 5. Carnivores 6. Omnivores 7. What elements are missing from this food web? 9

Invasive Species rticles/alien_animals/alien_home2.htm rticles/alien_animals/alien_home2.htm 10