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Energy in Ecosystems

Terms in this set (25)

Producer
An organism that can make its own food using inorganic materials.
They can be plants, algae, or some bacteria. They are always at the start of the food chain.
Consumer
An organism that eats other organisms.
Primary Consumer
A herbivore; an organism in the trophic level of an ecosystem that eats plants or algae.
Herbivore
A consumer that eats only plants.
Secondary Consumer
A member of the trophic level of an ecosystem consisting of carnivores that eat herbivores.
Carnivore
A consumer that eats only animals.
Omnivore
A consumer that eats both plants and animals.
Tertiary Consumer
An organism that consumes secondary consumers and feeds at the fourth trophic level.
Decomposer
An organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients.
Pyramid of Numbers
Representation of the number of individual organisms in each trophic level of an ecosystem
Pyramid of Biomass
Illustrates the total biomass at each successive trophic level.
Pyramid of Energy
Show the relative amount of energy available at each trophic level of a food chain or food web
Predation
An interaction between species in which one species, the predator, eats the other, the prey.
Trophic Level
The position of an organism in relation to the flow of energy and inorganic nutrients through an ecosystem
Each step on the food chain or web
(e.g., producer, consumer, and decomposer).
10 percent rule
It explains that on average 10% of the available energy within a trophic level is transferred to the next trophic level
Photosynthesis
Autotrophs use this process to capture light energy to power the chemical reaction that converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and glucose
Food chain
Series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by being eating or being eaten
Food web
Network of complex interactions formed by the feeding relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem
Biomass
Total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level
Secondary consumer
(from food web)
Which trophic level am I?
Primary consumer
(from food web)
Which trophic level am I?
Producer
(from food web)
Which trophic level am I?
90 kCal
10% of 9000 is 900 (First transfer)
10% of 900 is 90 (Second transfer)
How much energy will the owl get if there is 9000 kCal of energy in the grass
Organisms use this energy for their own life processes
Ecologists estimate that only 10% of the energy at a trophic level is available to the next trophic level. Which best explains why this occurs?
Multicellular Heterotrophs
Humans would be classified as
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