1. Energy in Ecosystems

2. Energy in Ecosystems
Producer (autotroph) - get their energy from nonliving resources (make their own food)
Producers provide energy for other organisms in an ecosystem
Consumer (heterotroph) - get their energy by eating other living things such as plants and animals

3. Almost all producers obtain energy from sunlight

4. Most producers on Earth use sunlight as energy source using photosynthesis.
photosynthesis converts light energy (sunlight) into chemical energy (carbohydrates)

5. Chemosynthesis - organisms make carbohydrates using chemicals instead of sunlight
found in deep-sea thermal vents, sulfur-rich marsh flats, and hydrothermal pools
can be basis for thriving ecosystems

6. Food Chains and Food Webs
Food Chain - sequence that links species by their feeding relationships.
only follows connections between one producer and single chain of consumers
simplest way to look at energy flow in an ecosystem

7. Food Web shows a complex network of feeding relationships
In a Food Web - organism may have multiple feeding relationships.
Stability of food web depends on presence of producers (forms base of food web)

8. Types of Consumers Herbivores - eat only plants
Carnivores - eat only animals
Omnivores - eat both plants and animals

9. Detritivores - organisms that eat detritus (dead organic matter)

10. Decomposers - break down organic matter into simpler compounds (inorganic matter)
Fungi and bacteria
Important to stability of ecosystem by returning nutrients (minerals) back into the environment

11. Organism may focus on single organism to feed (specialist), or have varying diet (generalist)

12. Trophic Levels - level in a food chain
Quaternary consumer – carnivores that eat tertiary consumers
Tertiary consumer - carnivores that eat secondary consumers
Secondary consumer – carnivores that eat herbivores
Primary consumers - herbivore
Producers always first level

13. Energy Pyramid - diagram that compares energy used by each trophic level
Base made up of producers
Energy lost to each succeeding trophic level
Only 10% energy available to next trophic level