17.2 and 17.3 Food Chains

17.2 and 17.3 Food Chains

By Jae Hilgers

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Did you eat any vegetables for dinner last night?

• YES

• NO

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​https://florida.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/thnkgard.sci.ess.chain/think-garden-whats-a-food-chain/#.WoSC8ujwbIU

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Food Chains and Food Webs Food chains and food webs provide a detailed picture of how organisms consume other organisms or substances to get energy. Studying food chains and webs provides a direct application of cause and effect. What one organism consumes influences other organisms. Plants are producers, because plants can produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis. Humans and animals are consumers in the food chain because they must consume other organisms to survive. A food chain describes this consumption process in a direct line. For example, the lettuce produces its own food, the rabbit consumes the lettuce, and the hawk consumes the rabbit.

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​A food web describes the many different sources of biotic or living energy that are part of an ecosystem, e.g., the hawk consumes the rabbit or the squirrel, and the lettuce is consumed by the rabbit or the human. Food webs describe the complicated process by which energy is transferred from one living organism another. Some consumers are herbivores that consume only plant material. Others are meat eaters or carnivores. And those consumers that eat both plants and animals are omnivores.

​When an organism dies, it begins to play a new role in food chains or webs as it is broken down into the soil by decomposers such as insects, fungi, and bacteria. The soil absorbs nutrients from the decomposing matter, and these nutrients are absorbed into the roots of growing plants. The concept of food chains and food webs remind us that all organisms are interdependent. Even the simple act of growing a garden influences the ecosystem by adding elements to it

​Here is an example of a food chain...

Multiple Choice

What was the example of a Producer in the ocean?

• Phytoplankton

• Shark

• Seal

• Ted the Tadpole

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All food chains start with the

because that is where the producers get their energy.