Energy Flow
Study Guide 3.2
Producers and Consumers (pages 67 – 69)
1) ______________ is the ultimate source of energy in almost all organisms on the earth.
2) What are autotrophs?
3) What color is most often associated with
autotrophs?
4) What is another name for an autotroph?
5) What do autotrophs do during
photosynthesis?
6) What is a consumer?
7) What is another name for a consumer?
8)
For each of the following, give examples
of the main types of producers.
a) on land
b) in the upper layers of the ocean
c) in ponds
9) Directions: match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.
_____ step in the transfer of energy and matter in a
community
a. autotroph
_____ autotrophs that make food for the entire
community
b. carnivore
_____ consumers that feed on the tissues of dead
animals
c. food chain
_____ organisms that eat only plants
d. producers
_____ animals that eat only meat
e. omnivores
_____ animals that eat producers and other
consumers
f. consumers
_____ model of energy flow from one organism to
another through each trophic level
g. decomposers
_____ organisms that make their own food
h. herbivores
_____ organisms that feed directly on producers
i. trophic level
_____ organism that feeds on wastes and dead
organic matter, forming soil
_____ all consumers obtain their energy and nutrients
by eating other organisms
j. detritivores
k. heterotrophs
Feeding Relationships (pages 69-71)
10) Types of Heterotrophs
Type
herbivore
Definition
Examples
cows, rabbits
heterotrophs that eats other
living animals
omnivore
humans, bears, crows
detritivore
decomposer
11) What does a food web link together?
12) What is a trophic level?
13) In a food web, what organisms make up the first trophic level?
14) Why do consumers in a food chain need the organisms below them?
Ecological Pyramids ((pages 72-73)
15) Describe an ecological pyramid.
16) Why is it that only a portion of the energy stored in one trophic level is passed on to the next level?
17) Directions: Complete the fill-in-the-blanks portion of the pyramid below by writing the source of
energy for the food web and how much energy is available to first-, second-, and third level
consumers.
18) What is biomass?
19) What does a biomass pyramid represent?
20) Why can each trophic level support only about 1/10th the amount of living things of the level below
it?