Energy flows through ecosystems from primary producers to consumers and decomposers. There are three main ways energy flow is illustrated: food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. Food chains show a linear path of energy transfer between organisms, while food webs depict a more complex set of interconnected food chains. Energy pyramids illustrate that the amount of usable energy decreases at each trophic level as heat is lost, limiting the length of food chains in an ecosystem. Understanding energy flow is important because all organisms require energy to survive and ecosystems depend on the continuous input and transfer of solar energy through various levels.
Energy flows through ecosystems from primary producers to consumers and decomposers. There are three main ways energy flow is illustrated: food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. Food chains show a linear path of energy transfer between organisms, while food webs depict a more complex set of interconnected food chains. Energy pyramids illustrate that the amount of usable energy decreases at each trophic level as heat is lost, limiting the length of food chains in an ecosystem. Understanding energy flow is important because all organisms require energy to survive and ecosystems depend on the continuous input and transfer of solar energy through various levels.
Energy flows through ecosystems from primary producers to consumers and decomposers. There are three main ways energy flow is illustrated: food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. Food chains show a linear path of energy transfer between organisms, while food webs depict a more complex set of interconnected food chains. Energy pyramids illustrate that the amount of usable energy decreases at each trophic level as heat is lost, limiting the length of food chains in an ecosystem. Understanding energy flow is important because all organisms require energy to survive and ecosystems depend on the continuous input and transfer of solar energy through various levels.
Energy flows through ecosystems from primary producers to consumers and decomposers. There are three main ways energy flow is illustrated: food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. Food chains show a linear path of energy transfer between organisms, while food webs depict a more complex set of interconnected food chains. Energy pyramids illustrate that the amount of usable energy decreases at each trophic level as heat is lost, limiting the length of food chains in an ecosystem. Understanding energy flow is important because all organisms require energy to survive and ecosystems depend on the continuous input and transfer of solar energy through various levels.
Discussant: Rachel D. Calaunan Instructor: Mr. Ramirson E. Benito Topic: Energy Flow in the Ecosystem
I. INTRODUCTION All organisms require energy, for growth, maintenance, reproduction, locomotion, etc. The flow of energy is the most important factor that controls what kind of organisms live in an ecosystem and how many organisms the ecosystem can support. Energy can be added, stored, transferred, and lost in an ecosystem. Energy flow is the transfer of energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem. Every organism interacts with its ecosystem in two ways: 1. The organism obtains food energy from the ecosystem 2. The organism contributes energy to the ecosystem.
II. BODY OF THE REPORT Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, typically from the Sun, through photosynthetic organisms including green plants and algae, to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers. Ecologists study how energy moves through an ecosystem by assigning organisms in that ecosystem to a specific level called a trophic level.
3 Ways to Illustrate Energy Flow 1. Food Chain 2. Food Web 3. Energy Pyramid
FOOD CHAIN A food chain indicates the transfer of energy from producers through a series of organisms which feed upon each other. It shows the path of energy from one organism to the next.
FOOD WEB A food web is a series of interrelated food chains which provides a more accurate picture of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem, as more than one thing will usually eat a particular species.
ENERGY PYRAMID An energy pyramid provides a means of describing the feeding and energy relationships within a food chain or web. Each step of an energy pyramid shows that some energy is stored in newly made structures of the organism which eats the preceding one. The pyramid also shows that much of the energy is lost when one organism in a food chain eats another. Most of this energy which is lost goes into the environment as heat energy. While a continuous input of energy from sunlight keeps the process going, the height of energy pyramids (and therefore the length of food chains) is limited by this loss of energy.
III. CONCLUSION As I go over this topic, Ive learned that we all need energy for us to able to function fully or live in this world. The existence of living world depends upon the flow of energy and circulation of materials through ecosystem. The energy is required for the performance of all the life activities. This is the most important point that we should all remember that ecosystem is dependent upon solar energy flow and finite pools of energy and that the primary source of energy for ecosystem is sunlight. I also understood about the dependence of organisms on other organisms. This dependence is basically on food. Food is the source of energy of all living organisms. I found out that the amount of useful energy decreases as energy passes through the levels of an ecosystem. Most of it is lost to the surroundings as thermal energy.
IV. REFERENCES http://regentsprep.org/Regents/biology/units/ecology/energy.cfm http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ecology/Energy_in_ecosystems Science and Technology I Science and Technology Textbook for First Year High School First Edition, 1989 Reprint Edition 1991, 1994