Flow of Energy in Ecosystems

What is the energy source for producers, consumers, and decomposers?

Answer explanation

• Producers absorb the Sun’s radiant energy and use it to create their own food. Consumers eat either producers or other consumers to get the energy they need to function. Decomposers break down dead organic material and absorb the energy from it.

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Where do decomposers recycle the nutrients from dead plant and animal matter?

Answer explanation

• In terrestrial environments, the nutrients are recycled to the soil where plants can reabsorb them. In aquatic environments, the nutrients are recycled back to the water

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NGSS.MS-LS2-3

A diagram is provided. Identify an energy path starting with a producer and ending with bacteria or fungi recycling the nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil of the environment.

Answer explanation

Grasses (producer) → Mouse → Mongoose → Hyena

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What do food chains demonstrate? What do they tell us about energy?

Answer explanation

Food chains show the relationship between organisms that get energy from other organisms. They show us that energy is passed on to organisms all the way through a food chain.

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NGSS.MS-LS2-3

How is matter cycled through an ecosystem?

Answer explanation

The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.

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NGSS.MS-LS2-3

A food web diagram is provided. Which of the following organisms depend only on producers for energy?

• Diatoms

• Shrimp

• Amphipods

• Squid

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Matter is passed from the living part of an ecosystem to the non-living part when which of the following takes place?

• Plants absorb gasses

• Plants decompose

• Animals eat plants

• Animals drink water

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NGSS.MS-LS2-3

The energy organisms need to live and grow first enters the ecosystem when–

• Plants take in light energy from the Sun

• Decomposers break down dead organisms

• Primary consumers eat plants for food

• Secondary consumers eat primary consumers

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A food diagram is provided. Based on the diagram, it is reasonable to conclude that matter could follow which of the following paths as it cycles through this ecosystem?

• Grass → Deer → Mountain lion

• Eagle → Deer → Plant seeds

• Sun → Grass → Robin

• Plant seeds → Field mouse → Robin

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Which of the following observations would support the claim that as plants absorb sunlight to make food, they release oxygen into the environment?

• When plants are kept in a sealed environment, the concentration of carbon dioxide steadily goes down.

• The oxygen concentration in a pond with many plants increases during the day and decreases at night and on cloudy days.

• Oxygen concentration in the atmosphere was much higher millions of years ago when different plants existed.

• Plants that are kept under conditions of total darkness fail to grow normally and will eventually die.

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