Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Thursday, January 22, 2015 Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Thursday, January 22, 2015 Ecological Pyramids Ecological Pyramids Essential Question: How do tropic pyramids show energy flow within an ecosystem? Warm up: Go to Coral Reef Food Web website http://www.exploringnature.org/graphics/foodwebs/coral%20reef_foodweb.pdf Producers Primary Consumers Secondary Consumers Decomposers/Detrivores Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores Scavengers Pyramid of Numbers: It depicts the number of individual organisms at different feeding (tropic) levels of food chain. Pyramid of Energy / Tropic Pyramid A diagram of interactions in a biological community representing the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next. Trophic means relating to nutrition. Pyramid of Biomass: The biomass of the members of the food chain present at any one time forms the pyramid of the biomass. Homework: Ecosystems Project and Complete “Energy in Ecosystems” Lab Questions Page 89 Page 90 1

Food Pyramid Trophic Pyramid Food and Trophic Pyramids A diagram of interactions in a biological community representing the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next. Trophic means relating to nutrition. Food Pyramid Trophic Pyramid

Practice: Create a Pyramid of Numbers using DE Coral Food Web Image Primary consumers only obtain a fraction of the total solar energy—about 10%—captured by the producers they eat. The other 90% is used by the producer for growth, reproduction, and survival, or it is lost as heat. What do you think the rule of 10% means??? At each level, called a trophic level, about 90% of the energy is lost. Nearly all of the energy that drives ecosystems ultimately comes from the sun. Solar energy, which is an abiotic factor, by the way, enters the ecosystem through the process of photosynthesis. Practice: Create a Pyramid of Numbers using DE Coral Food Web Image

Lab: Energy Flow in Ecosystems