12 Organisms and their Environment

Question 1

Define Food chain

Answer 1

Showing the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, beginning with a producer.

Question 2

Define Food web

Answer 2

A network of interconnected food chains.

Question 3

Define Producer

Answer 3

An organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

Question 4

Define Consumer

Answer 4

An organism that gets its energy feeding on other organisms.

Question 5

Define Herbivore

Answer 5

An animal that gets its energy by eating plants.

Question 6

Define Carnivore

Answer 6

An animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.

Question 7

Define Decomposer

Answer 7

An organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic matter.

Question 8

Define Ecosystem

Answer 8

A unit containing all of the organisms and their environment, interacting together, in a given area.

Question 9

Define Trophic level

Answer 9

The position of an organism in a food chain or food web.

Question 10

Describe how energy is transferred between trophic levels.

Answer 10

Plants use energy from the light to build new substances that act as energy stores. They are ingested by consumers and some of the energy becomes stored in that consumer which can be ingested by the next. Only 10% of energy available to an organism is passed since 90% of it is lost as heat and in undigested materials. The reason why there are usually fewer than five trophic levels is because the energy transfer makes it so that the top predator receives basically no energy.