Download Energy Vocabulary

Energy in Ecosystems
Review Vocabulary
• Producer – Makes own food, aka autotrophs.
• Herbivore – Eats only plants.
• Carnivore – Eats only animals.
• Omnivore – Eats both plants and animals.
• Decomposer – Breaks down dead organisms into simpler
substances that can be used by plants as fertilizer.
Energy Flow Through Ecosystems
• Can be summarized by trophic levels.
• Sun  producers  primary consumers  secondary
consumers  tertiary consumers.
• Food chains.
• Food webs…
• decomposers
Food Chains
• Can be shows how chemical energy is passed from one organism
to another. (The arrow points in the direction energy moves)
Producer
Primary
Consumer
Secondary
Consumer
• Producers are also called autotrophs.
• Consumers are also called heterotrophs.
Tertiary
Consumer
Food Webs
• Overlapping food chains.
• Prey (hunted).
• Predator (hunter).
• The arrows show the
direction energy travels.
Texas Food Web
Which of these are
producers?
Which of these are
primary consumers?
Which of these are
secondary consumers?
Which of these are
tertiary consumers?
algae
Energy Pyramid
• Only about 10% of energy gets transferred to the next trophic
level.
• The other 90% escapes to the environment ( sweat-perspiration,
waste, respiration, release of heat, movement, digestion, other
life processes).
Learning Check
• Which organisms are both secondary and tertiary consumers in
this partial desert food web?
Learning Check
• What would happen if the lizard population became extinct?
• Hawk and snake population would decrease.
• Termite and moth population would increase.
Cycling Matter
• Matter – Anything that has mass and takes up space (almost
everything).
• Cycle – Reusing.
Biomass
• Renewable energy source from biotic factors.
• Plants and animals.
• Feces, Manure, etc.
• Usually thought of as trash.
• Coal, petroleum (came from plants
or animals).
• A tropical rainforest has more biomass
than a desert.
Decay
• Dead organism decay or rot.
• Decomposers help in the decomposition process
• Decomposers: break down dead organisms into simpler
substances.
• Decomposers: bacteria, fungi, earthworms, dung beetles.
Compost
• Composting – is when someone collects
biotic factors and allows then to
decompose into fertilizer.
• Composting provides natural and
organic fertilizer which is both healthy
for the soil and environment.
• Things needed – leaves, grass,
manure, coffee grounds, water,
earthworms.
• Humus – result of composting: dark, sticky,
soil-like mixture, sweet smell.
• Temperature increases during composting.