10.2 1 Trophic Levels Flashcards
Producers
Make food.
In photosynthesis plants and algae trap light from sun drives production of atp which use to make glucose from carbon dioxide
Primary consumers
The organisms that eat producers
Herbivores
Use molecules in plants to supply raw materials needed for their metabolic reactions
Secondary consumers
Animals that feed on herbivores
Carnivores
Use molecules in herbivores to supply raw materials needed for their metabolic reaction
Tertiary consumers
Animals that feed other carnivores
Usually top predators in the area unless quaternary consumer
Decomposers
Final tropic level in any feeding relationship
Micro organisms such as bacteria and fungi
Break down remains of animals and plants and return nutrients to the soil
When organism is part of a complex food web
A change in any one component will have less catastrophic effects so is far more stable
Will potentially effect balance of an ecosystem
Pyramids of numbers
Number of organisms tends to decrease with each tropic level
More primary producers then consumers for example
Pyramids of biomass
Pyramids of numbers can be unaccurate
Shows combined mass of all organisms in a particular habitat
Wet or dry biomass but dry a lot more accurate
Dry mass vs wet mass
Wet mass effected by water content of organism
Dry mass destroys material
Pyramids of energy
Biomass doesn’t account for reproduction turn over rate - biomass over a time period may be higher
Energy in an ecosystem remains the same at every level it is the size and type of energy store that changes
As move along food chain
Less energy stored in organism and more stored in surrounding atmosphere
How energy lost
Unused material in faeces
Un digested parts of animal
Much of material is used to drive respiration exothermic heats tissue of animal and surrounding atmosphere
Metabolic waste products
Secondary production
Process of making new animal biomass from plant material that has been eaten
