1. 3-2
Energy Flow

2. Producers Sunlight is the main energy source for life on Earth.
Only plants, some algae, and certain bacteria can capture energy from sunlight and use that energy to produce food: these are known as Autotrophs.
Producers are living things that can make their own food
Autotrophs are a type of producer!

3. What process is used by autotroghs to use sunlight to make food?
Photosynthesis!

4. Consumers
Organisms that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply are called heterotrophs
Heterotroph = consumer

5. Types of Consumers Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores Detritivores
Decomposers

6. Herbivores
Obtain energy by eating only plants

7. Carnivores
Obtain energy by eating other animals

8. Omnivores
Obtain energy by eating both plants and animals

9. Detritivores Feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter
Also known as scavengers

10. Decomposers Break down organic matter (dead things)
Examples bacteria and fungi

11. Feeding Relationships
Energy Flows through an ecosystem in one direction, the sun to autotrophs to heterotrophs
Food Chain = a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
Food Web = when the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem form a network of complex interactions.
Trophic Level = each step in a food chain or food web

12. Food Chain

13. Food Web

14. Ecological Pyramids
Ecological pyramid is a diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web
Energy pyramid
Biomass pyramid
Pyramid of Numbers

15. Energy pyramid
Shows the relative amount of energy available at each tropic level

16. Biomass Pyramid
Biomass = total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level

17. Pyramid of Numbers
Shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level