Name: ___________________________
Period: _____________
Use pages 740-745 in the life science textbook to answer each of the following
questions.
(Both pages will end up in your notebook.)
Score:
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
/16
Energy Roles (pgs. 740-741)
Write the correct term (decomposer, producer, or consumer) next to its definition:
1. ___________________ Organism that breaks down wastes and dead organisms
2. ___________________ Organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms
3. ___________________ Organism that can make its own food from sunlight
4. What types of organisms are producers? (3)
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Are the following sentences true or false?
5. Energy enters all ecosystems as sunlight. ______________
6. Producers are the source of all the food in an ecosystem. ____________________
7. List two major groups of decomposers.
a._________________________
b._________________________
8. Complete the compare/contrast table.
Types of Consumers
Type of Consumer
Type of Food Eaten
Only plants
Carnivore
Both plants and animals
Dead organisms
9. Is the following sentence true or false?
Decomposers return raw materials to the environment. ____________________
36
Food Chains and Food Webs (pgs. 742-743)
10. A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy is called
a(n) ____________________.
11. Label the producer, the primary consumer
and secondary consumer in the food chain:
Grass:
__________________
Owl:
__________________
Mouse: _________________________
12. The many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem make up a(n) ______________.
13. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about a food web.
a. Producers are at the top of the food web.
b. All first-level consumers are carnivores.
c. Second-level consumers may be carnivores or omnivores.
d. An organism may play more than one role in a food web.
Energy Pyramids (pgs. 744-745)
14. What does an energy pyramid show?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
15. Circle the letter of each sentence that is true about an energy pyramid.
a. The greatest amount of energy is available at the producer level.
b. At each level of the pyramid, there is more energy available.
c. About half the energy at one level is transferred to the next.
d. Most food webs have only three or four feeding levels.
16. Why are there usually few organisms at the top of a food web?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
37
Answer KEY
1. decomposer
2. consumer
3. producer
4. Producers include plants, algae, and some bacteria.
5. false
6. true
7. bacteria, fungi
8. Column 1: Herbivore, Omnivore, Scavenger;
Column 2: Only animals
9. true
10. food chain
11. Grass is Producer. Mouse is First-level consumer.
Kestrel is Second-level consumer.
12. food web
13. c, d
14. It shows the amount of energy that moves
from one feeding level to another in a food web.
15. a, d
16. There are usually few organisms at the top
because there is a limited amount of energy
available at that level of a food web.