Characteristics of Living things

Flow of Energy Ecology

Flow of Energy

Ecology 

Essential Question:

•What are the producers and consumers in an ecosystem? 

•How does energy flow through an ecosystem? 

•What are food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramid models?

• An autotroph is an organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to make food. Autotrophs are the foundation of all ecosystems because the make energy available for all other organisms.

•  Autotrophs are the foundation of all ecosystems because the make energy available for all other organisms.

Multiple Select

Examples of Autotrophs

• Sunflower

• Venus Fly Trap

• Willow Tree

• Algae

Heterotrophs 

• A heterotroph, or consumer, is an organism that gets its energy by consuming other organisms.  

• An herbivore eats only plants 

• A carnivore eats animals

• An omnivore eats both plants and animals 

• A detritivore eats fragments of dead matter

Models of Energy Flow

• Food chains and food webs model the energy flow through an ecosystem.

• Each step in a food chain or food web is called a trophic level.

• Organisms at each level get their energy from the trophic level below them.

FOOD CHAIN

• A food chain is a simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem.

Food Web 

A food web is a model representing the many interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy flows through a group of organisms.

Multiple Choice

Which is more complex?

• Food Chain

• Food Web

Multiple Select

Which is true

• A Food Chain is a system of Food Webs

• A Food Web is a system of Food Chains

BIOMASS

Biomass is the total mass of living matter at each trophic level.