Decomposers: break down dead organisms.
Tertiary Consumers: These get 10% of
energy from secondary consumers.
Secondary consumers: They get
10% of energy from primary
consumers.
Producers: they get 100% of the
energy directly from the Sun.
Primary Consumers: They get 10% of
energy from producers.
Food webs, you’ve got the producers, consumers and decomposers. Let’s start at the
beginning, the producers. These are the organisms that create their own food using carbon dioxide
water and the sun. The plants roots suck up the water, the plant then absorbs the radiant energy from
the sun and the carbon dioxide and there you go……. sugar. This is called photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis creates glucose (sugar) for the organisms like trees and plants to store; this is like the
hamburger of plants. These are the organisms that get 100 percent of the energy.
Next in the food web you have the consumers. There are 3 different types of consumers, the
primary, secondary and tertiary consumers. The primary consumers or herbivores are the plant eaters,
they get there energy from eating the producers but only about 10 percent of it. An example a cow
eats grass. The next consumer is the secondary consumer or the carnivores. These are the meat eaters.
These organisms eat the primary consumers and they get about 10 percent of its energy. For example
a fox will eat a mouse. Last but not least the tertiary consumers. These are the eaters of the Primary
and secondary consumers. These only get about 10 percent of its energy. This organism is typically at
the top of the food chain and eats lots of food like a lion eating a hyena.
Last in the food web is the decomposers, these are the animals that eat anything dead. It could
be a dead rat or a dead elephant whatever it is these get it. The decomposer’s only get 10 percent of
the energy from what they eat. An example is a vulture eating a dead skunk on the road. Some people
don’t know that not all decomposers are visible. Bacteria are one of the most common decomposer’s
and usually ants eat anything dead.
All of the roles in the food web roles are very important to the ecosystem. If there were no
producers than the primary consumers would starve then the secondary consumers would starve and
eventually there would be no animals left and that means no food for you or me and mankind as we
know it would dissolve.