BIOLOGICAL ENERGY FLOWS

FOR YOUR NOTEBOOK

Biological Energy Flow- Webs | Chains | Pyramids

Practice with food chain in Tundra

Practice with food chain in Savannah

Practice with food chain in Woodland

How do organisms obtain energy in an ecosystem?

• Autotroph - an organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food (Producers)

• Heterotroph - an organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms (Consumers)

  • Herbivore - only eats plants (rabbits, cows, deer)

  • Carnivore -  eats other organisms (wolves, lions, sharks)

  • Omnivores - eat both plants and animals (humans, bears)

  • Detritivores - consume dead matter in an ecosystem (worms, fungi)

• Food Chain - a model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem

• Food Web -  a model representing the interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy flows through organisms

  • Producers

  • Primary consumers

  • Secondary consumers

  • Tertiary consumers

• Ecological Pyramids - shows the relative amounts of energy, biomass, or numbers of organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem

  • Biomass - the total mass of living matter at each trophic level