1. Energy in Ecosystems

2. Food Chains Food Chain What do food chains show?
What do the arrows represent?
A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy.
Food chains show the transfer of energy in an ecosystem
The arrows represent the transfer of energy.

3. Almost all Food Chains start with the sun
What do food chains start with?
What type of organism is after the sun?
Describe photosynthesis.
Almost all Food Chains start with the sun
After the sun is an organism that can do photosynthesis. Like plants and phytoplankton.
Sunlight + Carbon Dioxide
+ Water = Energy
This process is called Photosynthesis

4. Sun →milkweed → aphid →ladybug →bird → mushroom
Sun → grass → zebra → lion → vulture
Sun → seeds →grasshopper→ mouse → hawk
Sample food chains:

5. The fly is eaten by the thrush.
Food Chains
A food chain shows what is eaten and the direction that energy is travelling.
The fly is eaten by the thrush.

6. The lettuce is eaten by the rabbit.
Food Chains
A food chain shows what is eaten and the direction that energy is travelling.
The lettuce is eaten by the rabbit.

7. The lettuce is eaten by the slug, the slug is eaten by the bird.

10. Video Clip

11. Producers
An organism that can make its own food , through a process called photosynthesis. Producers are the source of all food in an ecosystem. Without producers there is no food chain.
Flowers
Phytoplankton
Tree

12. Two major groups of decomposers are: Bacteria Fungi.
Organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment.
Two major groups of decomposers are:
Bacteria
Fungi.
Decomposer Video Clip

13. fungus
bacteria
Donut Decomposition
Rabbit decomposition time-lapse

14. Consumers
3 types of Consumers
An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms.
Ex: Deer, Humans, Snakes, Bat, Cat, Hippopotamus, Cricket, Rabbit
Herbivores, Omnivores and Carnivores

15. A Basic Food Chain
Plants absorb light from the sun, which is turned into energy to grow. We call these producers.
The vegetarian animals eat the plants, they are called primary consumers.
Secondary consumers prey on primary consumers.

16. Sun Producer Primary Secondary Tertiary
Consumer Consumer Consumer

18. Pair Share
Partner A: Look to your partner and tell them the 3 types of energy levels?
Partner B: Look at your partner and describe a producer and give an example.
Partner A: Look at your partner and describe a consumer and give an example.
Partner B: Look at your partner and describe a decomposer and give an example.

19. Sun →milkweed → aphid →ladybug producer 1 consumer 2 consumer
→bird → mushroom
3 consumer Decomposer
Sun → grass → zebra → lion → vulture
produce 1 consumer 2 consumer 3 con
Sun → seeds → grasshopper→ mouse →
producer 1 consumer consumer
hawk
3 consumer
Video Clip 2 /Prod/Cons Video
Sample food chains with energy roles labeled:

20. Carnivores 3 types of consumers Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores
Consumers that eat ONLY other consumers.
( Meat -Eaters)
Ex: T-rex, Tigers, Lions, Ladybugs, Spiders.

21. Herbivores
Herbivores are consumers that eat only producers. (plant eaters)
Ex: Butterflies, deer, elephants, giraffes, rabbit.

22. Omnivores
Consumers that eat BOTH consumers and producers. (both meat eaters and plant eaters)
Ex. Humans, Bearded Dragons, Turtles, Bears.

23. Sun →milkweed → aphid →ladybug producer 1 consumer 2 consumer
herbivore Carnivore
→bird → mushroom
3 consumer Decomposer
Omnivore
Sun → grass → zebra → lion → vulture
produce 1 consumer 2 con con
herbivore carnivore carnivore
Sample food chains with energy roles labeled:

24. Omnivore: A pig eats fruit, eggs, corn, and earthworms.

25. Carnivore/ Insectivore: A frog eats insects, earthworms, and spiders.

26. Herbivore: eats grass, leaves, twigs, and shrub

27. Omnivore: A raccoon eats almost anything including berries, acorns, baby mice, baby birds & eggs, frogs, fish, and even some snakes.

28. Carnivore/Insectivore : Spiders eat insects.

29. Herbivore: A giraffe lives in Africa and eats leaves from trees
Herbivore: A giraffe lives in Africa and eats leaves from trees. A giraffe may eat 75 pounds of food each day.

30. Carnivore: A wolf eats deer, dogs, fish, mice, moose, birds, and other herbivores.

31. Herbivore: Rabbits eat grasses, weeds, leaves, shoots, twigs, and bark.

32. Carnivore: Lions eat other animals such as gazelles, antelopes, and zebras.

33. Herbivore: Sheep eat grass and hay.

34. Carnivore: Eagles eat fish, mammals, birds, and snakes. They love fish!

35. Herbivore: eats grass and hay

36. Herbivore: eats corn, twigs, shoots, acorns, fruit, berries, green plants

37. Omnivore: A grizzly bear usually eat things such as grasses, roots, berries, insects, fish, and small and large mammals.

38. Humans are omnivores!

39. Herbivore: eat 150 pounds of plants each day

40. Scavengers are animals that eat dead animals
Scavengers open up animal bodies so they can eat them.

41. Pair Share
Partner A: Look to your partner and tell them the 3 types of Consumers?
Partner B: Look at your partner and describe a herbivore and give an example.
Partner A: Look at your partner and describe a omnivore and give an example.
Partner B: Look at your partner and describe a carnivore and give an example.

42. Food Webs
A Food Web consists of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem.
It better represents the transfer of energy than a food chain.

45. Pair Share
Partner A tell your partner what a food web is.
Partner B explain the difference between a food web and a food chain.

46. Energy Pyramids

47. Energy Pyramid
An Energy Pyramid shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web. The most energy is at the producer level. At each level there is less available energy.
Energy Pyramid Video Clip

48. Law of Conservation
The law of conservation of energy is a law of science that states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Energy can only be changed from one form to another or transferred from one object to another.
So if each trophic level has less available energy, where does this energy go if it can not be destroyed?

53. An energy pyramid from the Andrews
1 Kcal
3rd level
consumers
mostly carnivores &
some omnivores
10 Kcal
2nd level consumer
carnivores & omnivores
100 Kcal
1st level consumer
herbivores
1000 Kcal
Producers:
green plants make their own energy from sunlight
10,000 Kcal

54. Pair Share
Discuss with your partner what a energy pyramid is.
Where does the energy go when it leaves the food chain?