Food Chain, Food Web Energy Pyramid Notes
Interactions are the relationships that organisms have within an
ecosystem. These relationships are usually defined by the organism’s
niche.
These interactions form food chains and food webs.
Niche- an organism’s job or role within an ecosystem
_Producer__ – an organism that makes its own food.
Plants
*Example -
_Consumer__ – an organism that has to eat to get energy. Consumers
include __Herbivores_, _Carnivores__, __Omnivores_ &
__Scavengers___.
Scavengers are organisms that eat dead material (left overs from
other animals’ kills)_.
herbivore – an organism that only eats _plants___
carnivore - an organism that only eats _meat___
omnivore – an organism that eats both plants & meat.
Decomposers_ - Break down (digest) dead plants and animals.
Two examples are _bacteria__ & ___fungi__
Decomposers _reduce____ dead organisms to simpler forms of
__matter___ and returns them to the soil.
A food chain or web shows the movement of _energy__
through ecosystems.
Food chains show how each living thing gets _food__.
Organisms transfer energy by _eating__ and being
___eaten__.
Food chains begin with the sun energy moving to a
_producer__. (Sometimes they don’t put the sun on the
diagrams though).
The arrows of a food chain show the __flow of energy_____
from one organism to another and go in _one_____
direction.
A food web is a collection of ___interconnected___
or overlapping food chains from the same
_ecosystem___.
An Energy Pyramid shows the __amounts__ of
__energy____ available at each trophic**
(__nutritional__) level of an ecosystem
The arrows in a food web show the ___flow of
energy_______ from one organism to another. This
flow of energy branches out in many
__directions________.
Producers are at the ___base____ &
___consumers___ make up the other levels.
Webs contain multiple __producers_ and
___consumers___.
The higher in the pyramid, the less energy is
available.
Energy Pyramid
3rd Level Consumer
Tertiary Consumer (Carnivores)
2nd Level Consumer
Secondary Consumer
(Omnivores and Carnivores)
1st Level Consumer
Primary Consumer
(Herbivores)
Producers
Decomposers break down dead organisms at ALL levels.