Ecological Communities

Life requires Energy

Life requires Energy to:

Organize matter
Build and maintain cellular structures
Power interactions among species
Power geological forces that shape the
planet

Energy moves in a one-way stream

shaping communities in the process

Primary Producers

autotrophs

Self feeders (produce

own food)
Capture energy from the
sun/chemicals and store
it in the bonds of sugars
Convert light energy to
chemical energy through
photosynthesis

Primary Consumers

Heterotrophs

Other feeders
Organisms that rely on other organisms for

energy and nutrients

Primary consumers consume producers
Secondary consumers consume primary
consumers etctertiaryetc.

Consumers

Herbivores

Carnivores

Omnivores

Only eat plants

Kill and eat other animals

Eat both plants and animals

Consumers

Detrivores

Decomposers

Millipedes and soil insects vulters (scavegers)

Consume nonliving organic matter
fungi, bacteria
Break down nonliving matter into simpler parts
that are used by primary producers

Energy in Communities

Trophic level

The rank of an organism in a feeding

hierarchy
Primary producers = 1st trophic level
Consumers = 2nd-4th trophic levels

Energy

Energy conversion is not 100%

efficient
Only a small amount of energy
consumed by an organism is available
to be transferred.
= heat loss

10% Rule

Each tropic level

contains 10% of
the energy of the
level below it

Trophic Level Biomass

Biomass the
total amount of
living tissue in a
trophic level
Lower the trophic
level the greater
the number of
organisms =
more biomass

Food Webs

A visual map of
feeding relationships
and energy flow
Shows many paths
that energy and
nutrients take as
organisms consume
one another

Food Chain

Linear series of feeding relationships

and energy transfer

Keystone Species

A species that holds the community

together without it, the food web will
crumble