The energy needed to

support life on earth

comes from the
Is the quantitative property that must
be transferred to an object in order to Sun. Sunlight pro-
perform work on, or to heat, the object. vide the energy re-
Energy is a conserved quantity; the law quired for the evaporation of
of conservation of energy states that en-
ergy can be converted in form, but not
H2O cycle.
created or destroyed. The SI unit of en-
ergy is the joule, which is the energy
transferred to an object by the work of
moving it a distance of 1 metre against
a force of 1 newton.

Ecosystem are all interacting com-

munities of organisms and abiotic
factors of the environment.

No ecosystem can exist

without a source of ener-
gy. The biosphere de-
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
pends on a continuous
is the process of
supply of energy..
turning light en-
ergy into chemi-
cal energy.
 Therefore, primary consum-
ers get about 10% of the ener-
gy produced by autotrophs,
while secondary consumers
get 1% and tertiary consum-
ers get 0.1%. This means the
top consumer of a food
chain receives the least ener-
gy, as a lot of the food chain's
energy has been lost between
trophic levels. This loss of en-
Solar energy is ergy at each level limits typi-
fixed by
the photoautotrop
hs, called primary
producers, like
green plants.

Primary consumersabsorb
most of the stored energy in
the plant through digestion, A final link in the food chain
and transform it into the
are decomposers which break
form of energy they need
down the organic matter of
the tertiary consumers (or
Secondary consumers, carnivores, whichever consumer is at the
then consume the pri- top of the chain) and re-
mary consumers, alt- lease nutrients into the soil.
hough omnivores also
consume primary pro-
ducers.