Food Chains & Food Webs

Food Chains and Food Webs

Pages 16 & 17 in your Ecosystems LearnEd Notebook

Multiple Choice

What is this diagram called?

• Food Web

• Food Chain

• Energy Pyramid

★ A food chain is the simplest path that energy

takes through an ecosystem

○ Always begins with the SUN
○ Every level is called a TROPHIC LEVEL

(troph = food)

○ At each level, organisms use some

energy for respiration, lose some as heat
and store some

Multiple Choice

Where does the energy in ecosystems always START FROM?

• The Sun

• Plants

• Consumers

• Decomposers

Multiple Choice

What does the prefix Troph- mean?

• Earth

• Life

• Food

• Animal

Open Ended

How do organisms lose energy in an ecosystem?

★ 1st Trophic Level: (put this in the green box)

○ Producers (autotrophs)
○ Use sunlight energy to produce their

own food that is also consumed by other
organisms

○ Largest amount of energy
○ Largest biomass

Multiple Choice

What do Producers use to create their own energy?

• Sunlight

• Other animals

• Chemicals

• Gravity

Draw

Please Draw a Producer

★ 2nd Trophic Level:

○ Consumers
○ Heterotrophs
○ Primary consumers are dependent upon

producers (herbivores)

○ Less available energy

Multiple Choice

Where do Primary Consumers get their energy?

• Eating Animals

• Eating Plants

• Sunlight

Draw

Please Draw a Primary Consumer

★ 3rd Trophic Level:

○ Consumers
○ Heterotrophs
○ Secondary consumers are dependent

upon levels below

○ Less available energy

Multiple Choice

Where do Secondary consumers get their energy?

• Eating Animals

• Eating Plants

• Sunlight

Draw

Please draw a secondary consumer

★ The energy available for each trophic level in

an ecosystem can be shown in a food web

○ Shows connections between all the food

chains in an ecosystem

○ Depicts the transfer of energy

Draw

Connect the organisms below to create a food web

Draw

Create a food web with the following organisms