10.2 Study Guide Flashcards
What are the trophic levels?
- Producer. 2. Primary consumer. 3. Secondary consumer. 4. Tertiary consumer.
What is an autotroph? What is a heterotroph?
Autotroph: An organism that can produce their own food using sunlight, water, carbon dioxide or other chemicals.
Heterotroph: An organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients.
What is an herbivore?
An animal that only eats plants.
What is a carnivore?
An animal that only eats meat.
What is an omnivore?
An animal that eats both plants and meat.
What is a detritivore?
An animal that feeds on dead, organic material.
What is shown in an energy pyramid? A biomass pyramid? A number pyramid?
An energy pyramid shows the amount of energy available at each trophic level. A number pyramid represents the number of individual organisms in each level. The biomass pyramid presents the biomass present at each level.
Please name similarities and differences between how matter and energy are transferred/transformed in an ecosystem.
Energy is transferred through the process of eating, or through food. When one organism eats another, they get energy, but less energy than what the other organism got from another source. Energy changes form, but no new energy is created, and atoms are rearranged into various molecules, but no new matter is created.
What is the rule of 10 and how does it apply to ecological pyramid models?
The rule states that each level in an ecosystem only gives 10% of their energy to the levels above them. This helps explain why the pyramid decrease as we go up levels.
Why is it considered more efficient to eat at a lower trophic level vs. a higher trophic level?
You get more energy/ have more energy at a lower trophic level than a higher trophic level. Higher levels get less energy.
Please create a food web and identify the different trophic levels of the organisms.
Grass —> Grasshopper —> Mouse —> Hawk
Producer –> Primary consumer –> Secondary consumer –> Tertiary consumer.
