Warmup
Write about the ecological stage pictured below, and what is going to
succeed it. Use words like primary, secondary, climax, pioneer, and
opportunist if you can.
JANUARY 27TH, 2010
Ecological Roles
Producer
Consumer
Herbivore
Carnivore
Omnivore
Decomposer
Scavenger
Producers
Producers catch sunlight and convert it to sugar using chloroplasts.
6H20 + 6CO2 + sunlight  C6H12O6 + 6O2
Only extremophylic ecosystems can exist without true producers to
support them.
Producers are the most numerous by both number and mass (how
many and how much). Common ones include algae, cyanobacteria
(pictured below), grasses, bushes, trees, seaweed, and kelp.
Consumers
Consumers can be grouped into three different categories:
Herbivores eat only producers.
Carnivores eat only other consumers.
Omnivores eat both consumers and producers.
All consumers use sugar to release energy.
Some do so mainly using oxygen (respiration or aerobic metabolism).
Others do so without oxygen (fermentation or anaerobic metabolism).
Decomposers
Decomposers are like consumers in that they use stored energy from other
organisms. They differ in that they break down and recycle organic material
in the process.
Without decomposers, we would be buried under miles of wood, leaves, and
dead bodies.
Decomposers include scavengers, bacteria, fungi, and protists (a category
of single-celled organisms) and can also include things like earthworms,
termites, and ants.
Two ingredients decomposers recycle include Carbon and Nitrogen.
Energy Loss
Producers use some energy they capture to grow, repair and
reproduce cells, and live. They also waste some energy.
Consumers only digest a fraction of the energy stored in their food.
They then use some of that energy to stay warm, grow, repair and
reproduce cells, and move. They also waste some energy.
At each level, there is successively less energy available because
of all the use, loss, and waste.
Energy Pyramid
Practice
Organize the following list of organisms into producers, different types of
consumers, and decomposers. Then use your categories to create and
energy pyramid. The pyramid can be as many levels tall as needed.
cattail, sawgrass, water lily, pickerel weed, spike rush, bullrush, fish,
crabs, shrimp, tadpoles, insect larvae, frogs, birds, insects, cougar, deer,
snails, earthworms, bacteria
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/marsh/freshwaterprintout.shtml
Practice
Use the food web to create an energy
pyramid. Identify the top carnivore.
Practice
Identify each of these as a producer, certain type of consumer, or
decomposer. Map out the possible relationship of each organism to
each other organism.
Algae
Krill
Plankton
Whale
(Hint: Whales eat Krill. Krill eats plankton. Plankton eats Algae)
Food Web Example
Food Web Example
Practice
Create a food web for the list of species below.
Cattail, sawgrass, water lily, pickerel weed, spike rush, bullrush, fish,
crabs, shrimp, tadpoles, insect larvae, frogs, birds, insects, cougar, deer,
snails, earthworms, bacteria.