ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS

Textbook:
I Can: Topic 4 pg 38-45
● identify the niches of organisms
● describe and produce an example of a food chain and food web
● describe how energy and matter flows and cycles through the food web.
 KNOW YOUR ROLE….
_____________: role of an organism in its community

To determine an organism's niche identify:

○ what it ________________________,

○ where it ________________________
○ how it interacts with the others

● Knowing niches of an organism can help explain why they

act & interact the way they do
__________________ _________________
eats meat eats plants & animals

** _______________**
eat other living things
_________________
eats plants

_________________
Makes its own food
______________________
______________________
● grow in/on dead matter
_
● ABSORB nutrients and ● EAT decaying plants &
Recycles back to the animals
ecosystem ● Ex: vulture, maggot
● ex: worms, bacteria
Single path of
energy flow
-flows 1 way Combines many food chains
-starts with sun -not realistic (many predators & food sources)
Show You Know!
● Name a producer

● Name a herbivore

● Name a carnivore

● Create 2 food chains from this food

web

What happens if:

● less vegetation grows?

● the Eagle population increases?

 Tertiary
shows the number of Consumer
organisms at each
level of an ecosystem Secondary Energy lost at
(model) Consumer
each level for
vital processes

● always more animals Primary

being eaten than are eating
Consumer
● To find out how much
energy is being transferred
from one level to another Producer
we calculate biomass

________________: total mass of

organisms in an ecosystem
 ● Name a secondary consumer

● Name an omnivore

● Name a carnivore

● Which species has the most biomass in the food

web?

What happens when:

● Mice population decrease?

● Mice population increases?

● Cougar population decreases?

● Cougar population increases?

Videos
● Dead stuff: the secret ingredient in our food chain (3:50)

● Watermelon decomposition timeplapse (1 min)

● Energy Flow in the coral reef system (4min)

● decomposers (3min)
 WHAT NOW?

Answer the following questions:

1. Why should I care about decomposers?
● What if plants and animals continued to die but there were no organisms there to
"clean up"?

2. What does a producer need to get its energy?

3. Can a consumer survive without a producer?

Why or why not?