2. Food Chains & Food Webs UNIT 5: POPULATIONS & ECOSYSTEMS

3. What is a Food Chain? A food chain is the path by which energy passes from one living thing to another.

4. What’s in a Food Chain?  Producers  Consumers  Decomposers

5. All energy on earth starts from the sun.

6. (producers)  use energy from sun, carbon dioxide, and water to make food  store energy in leaves, stems and roots  all other living things on earth get energy from plants.

7. consumers  any form of life on earth that must eat other things to survive  cannot make their own food  labeled by the number of steps they are away from plants, in the food chain

8. primary consumer  eat plants to survive  get energy directly from plants  Ex: caterpillar eats a leaf; elephant eats bark of a tree; cow eats grass; squirrel eats nuts

9. secondary consumer  organisms that eat primary consumers (plant eaters) to survive  get their energy from plants second-hand Ex: owl eats mouse that eats berry; spider eats insect that eats leaf

10. tertiary consumer  organisms that eat secondary consumers to survive  get their energy from plants third-hand EX: hawk eats the fish, that ate the smaller fish, that ate the seaweed

11. top consumer  not eaten by any other consumer  on top of the food chain  can be primary, secondary or tertiary consumer

12. decomposers  break down remains of dead organisms  help release trapped energy in dead organism back to the earth.

13. Let’s Look at a Food Chain

14. Types of Food Chains Aquatic- Water-related food chains with sea plants and animals Terrestrial- Land-related food chains with land plants and animals

15. What is a Food Web?  A more realistic way of looking at the relationship of plants and animals in an environment Several food chains linked together

16. Food Webs How many food chains can you make from this food web?