1. Food Chains & Food Webs

2. TERMINOLOGY Producer – an organism that makes its own food. Consumer – an organism that eats another organism for food.

3. WHAT DO THESE THINGS HAVE IN COMMON?

4. FOOD CHAINS A food chain is a sequence linking organisms that feed on each other. Ex. Grass  grasshopper  frog  snake

5. TROPHIC LEVELS Each organism in a food chain occupies a different feeding level, or trophic level. The 1 st trophic level is ALWAYS a producer. It feeds itself by making its own food through photosynthesis.

6. TROPHIC LEVELS The 1 st consumer or primary consumer is the organism that eats the producer. It is a herbivore. The 2 nd consumer or secondary consumer eats the herbivore. It is the 1 st carnivore.

7. TROPHIC LEVELS The 3 rd consumer or tertiary consumer eats the primary carnivore (secondary consumer). This trend can continue for multiple trophic levels.

8. TROPHIC LEVELS W hich trophic level would you occupy if you ate: o a bowl of cornflakes? o a salmon that just ate a herbivorous fish? o a steak?

9. FOOD CHAINS In our original food chain, each organism has a specific role(s): - The grass is the producer (1 st trophic level) - The grasshopper is the primary consumer (2 nd trophic level) - The frog is the secondary consumer AND the primary carnivore (3 rd trophic level) - The snake is the tertiary consumer AND the secondary carnivore (4 th trophic level)

10. WHAT DO THESE THINGS HAVE IN COMMON?

11. FOOD WEBS A food web is a series of interconnected food chains all drawn in one picture. It shows all possible food chains given a number of organisms.

12. FOOD WEBS

14. Create a food web using the following animals: Grass, deer, rabbit, hawk, snail, algae, fish, minnow, raccoon, crane, mouse, snake, fox, owl