1. Ecology
Food Webs

2. Review: What are the components of a food chain?
PRODUCERS
SUN
3. CONSUMERS
4. DECOMPOSER

3. Review: What is a food chain?
A food chain is a model
It shows how energy is transferred in an ecosystem when one organism eats another
Students copy this down

4. Which food chain is correct?
Remember: a food chain shows how energy is transferred in an ecosystem when one organism eats another

5. Food Chains
Some food chains are very short, because some animals will only eat one thing
For example,
The Panda only eats bamboo shoots

6. Food Chains
Do you think a food chain is an accurate representation of what REALLY happens in an ecosystem?

7. Food Webs
Most animals eat more than one kind of food, and so they belong to many food chains
For example,
In a forest ecosystem, a rabbit will eat many different kinds of plants

8. Food Webs
A fox may eat a rabbit, but it also eats insects, birds, worms and other small animals
When food chains start to become very complex, they are called Food Webs

9. Food Webs Food chains show only a single set of energy transfers
A Food Web is a series of interconnected food chains
A food web more accurately
shows the many connections
and flow of energy in an
ecosystem

10. Energy Transfer Relationships