Download LESSON 2 HOW DOES ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS

LESSON 2 HOW DOES ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS?
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Energy in an ecosystem is passed from one organism to another.
Producers make their own food.
Consumers use other organisms as food.
Some protists have chloroplasts to produce their own food. If there is no light, they get their nutrients
from decaying organisms.
Energy is transferred from one organism to another in a food chain.
Decomposers help recycle food energy for reuse by producers and consumers.
Energy in a food chain moves in only one direction because it begins with sunlight and moves to producers
and then to consumers.
One type of organism can be part of more than one food chain.
A food web is a system of overlapping food chains.
Natural and human-made events can affect a food web.
If the population of an organism is greatly reduced by hunting, the whole food web will be affected by the
diminished food source.
Remember: The direction an arrow faces in a food chains points to who is doing the eating.