1. Food Chains and Food Webs

2. http://www. learn360. com/ShowVideo. aspx

3. Food Chain and Food Web Background Vocabulary
1. Predator - an animal that hunts another animal for food Ex: When a tiger eats an antelope, the tiger is a predator.

4. 2. Prey - an animal that is hunted by another animal for food
Ex: Fish are prey for the grizzly bear.

5. 3. Decomposer - an organism that feeds on dead plants or animals
Ex: worms, bacteria, mushrooms

6. Example: What is a food chain?
A food chain is a sequence of organisms in an ecosystem in which each species is the food of the next member of the chain
Example:

7. Important facts about food chains
In a food chain each organism obtains energy from the one at the level below it.
Plants are called producers (autotrophs) because they create their own food through photosynthesis3
Animals are consumers (heterotrophs) because they cannot create their own food, they must eat plants or other animals to get the energy that they need.

8. Primary Producers
are “organisms capable of producing their own food” through photosynthesis (light energy)
are eaten by primary consumers (herbivores)
Examples of primary producers include algae, phytoplankton, and large plants.

9. Four types of consumers
Herbivores: animals that eat only plants
Carnivores: animals that eat only other animals
Omnivores: animals that eat animals and plants
Detritivores: animals that eat dead materials and organic wastes

10. Other Ways to Classify Consumers
Primary Consumers: Herbivores
Secondary Consumers: Carnivores that eat herbivores
Tertiary Consumers: Carnivores that eat other carnivores

11. Examples of Primary Consumers
Muskrat (eats mostly Cattails)

12. Primary Consumers in Marshes
Wood Duck eats seeds like those of the Swamp Marsh Mallow and Blue Flag Iris

13. Primary Consumers in Marshes
Glassy-winged Toothpick Grasshopper – eats leaves of plants like cattail and pickerelweed

14. Examples of Secondary Consumers
Black Rat Snake eats eggs of animals like wood duck

15. Secondary Consumers
Swamp Sparrow eats seeds but also insects like the toothpick grasshopper

16. Example of Tertiary Consumers
Eat other animals in marsh including snake and sparrow
Osprey

17. Another Example of an Omnivore
Raccoons eat seeds, fruits, insects, worms, fish, and frogs… and pretty much anything else they can get their paws on!

18. Detritivore (di-trite-i-vore)
Worms are common detritivores in many ecosystems including marshes

19. What is a food web?
A food web is “an interlocking or overlapping pattern of food chains”

20. Food Webs
In the wild, animals may eat more than one thing, so they belong to more than one food chain.
To get the food they need, small herbivores may eat lots of different plants, and carnivores may eat many different animals.

21. Breaking the Chain Organisms living in a habitat depend on each other.
If one part of a food chain dies out or is greatly reduced, the consumers have to find alternative food, move away, or starve.
This then affects more consumers in the same way.

22. Copy this Food Energy Pyramid diagram into your notes