1. Food Chains
8th Grade Science

2. (This includes mammals, birds,
Wednesday Bell Work
In your Science Journal, list all the organisms that live near here that you can.
(This includes mammals, birds,
reptiles, fish, insects, plants,
fungi, and bacteria- everything!)

3. Add to your notes… Producers Herbivores Consumers Carnivores
What are each of these things, and how do they affect an ecosystem? How do they fit into a food chain?
Producers Herbivores
Consumers Carnivores
Decomposers Omnivores
Autotrophs
Heterotrophs

4. …is ALL, ABOUT, ENERGY. A Food Chain…
(And how it flows through an ecosystem.)

5. The arrows do NOT point at what something eats.
A Food Chain…
The arrows do NOT point at what something eats.
They point to where the energy is GOING.
(That’s usually what’s eating THEM.)

6. Producers
A Producer
is an organism that uses the sun’s energy to produce its own food.
Producers are autotrophs (“auto” = self; “troph” = nourishing).
Producers are the start of every food chain. Without them, no ecosystem could exist.

7. Consumers
A Consumer
is an organism that consumes (eats) other organisms to obtain energy.
Consumers are heterotrophs (“hetero” = other; “troph” = nourishing).
Consumers can be herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.

8. Decomposers A Decomposer
is an organism that breaks down dead or decaying organisms in order to return the nutrients to the soil for producers to use.
Decomposers are heterotrophs (“hetero” = other; “troph” = nourishing).
Decomposers are the only heterotrophs that are not herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores.

9. Herbivores An herbivore (“plant eater”)
is a heterotroph that only eats plants as a food source.
Where would herbivores fit on a food chain?
They are the primary consumers, because they are the first organisms to obtain energy by eating other organisms.

10. Carnivores A carnivore (“meat eater”)
is a heterotroph that only eats other consumers as a food source.
Where would carnivores fit on a food chain?
They are the secondary and tertiary consumers, because they obtain their energy only after the primary consumers obtain it from eating plants.

11. Omnivores An omnivore (“everything eater”)
is a heterotroph that obtains energy from both meat sources and plant sources.
Where would omnivores fit on a food chain?
Omnivores wouldn’t have a definite place in a food chain, but they would be either secondary consumers or further.

12. Carnivores (Secondary/Tertiary consumers)
Organizing the terms…
Autotrophs
Heterotrophs
Producers
Consumers
Decomposers
Herbivores
(Primary consumers)
Carnivores (Secondary/Tertiary consumers)