2.1 Energy Flow in Ecosystems

Question 1

What is Energy Flow?

Answer 1

The flow of energy from an ecosystem to and organism and from one organism to another

Question 2

What are producers and why are they called producers?

Answer 2

• plants!

- they produce food in the form of carbs during photosynthesis

Question 3

What are consumers?

Answer 3

Organisms that feed on other organisms

Question 4

What is Biodegradation?

Answer 4

The process by which dead organic matter is broken down naturally by biological agents, especially bacteria

Question 5

What are decomposers?

Answer 5

Organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, that change waste and dead organisms into usable nutrients for other organisms in soil and water

Question 6

What is a food chain?

Answer 6

A chain to show the flow of energy in a ecosystem from producer to consumer, and from consumer to consumer

Question 7

What can consumers in a food chain be classified as? Give examples. (4)

Answer 7

• Detrivores: consumer that eat dead organisms and waste matter (important energy source for consumers like birds) eg. beetles and earthworms
• Herbivores: consumers that only eat plants
  eg. deers and grasshoppers
• Carnivores: consumers that eat animals
  eg. frogs and hawks
• Omnivores: consumers that eat both plants and animals
  eg. humans and bears

Question 8

What is a trophic level?

Answer 8

The number of energy transfers an organism is from the original solar energy entering the food chain, each step in a food chain is a trophic level

Question 9

What is a food web?

Answer 9

A model to show the feeding relationship in an ecosystem

Question 10

What do arrows in a food web represent?

Answer 10

The flow of energy and nutrients between organisms

Question 11

What will you find by following the arrows up the food web?

Answer 11

The top carnivore(s)

Question 12

What are food pyramids or ecological pyramids?

Answer 12

A pyramid that shows the changes in available energy from one trophic level to another in a food chain.

Question 13

What is biomass?

Answer 13

The total mass of all living things in a given area

Question 14

Where does energy enter?

Answer 14

• at the 1st tropic level, the producer tropic level

- there is a large amount of biomass here

Question 15

True or False: Lower trophic levels have smaller populations than upper level.

Answer 15

False

Question 16

True or False: It takes large quantities of organisms in one trophic level to meet the energy needs of the next trophic level.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

About how much energy is loss in-between trophic levels and why? (3)

Answer 17

• about 90% is lost
• it is used in chemical reactions in the body and is lost as heat energy
• there is little energy left for growth or increase in biomass

Question 18

What does a pyramid of numbers show?

Answer 18

• the number of organisms at each trophic level

Question 19

What does a pyramid of biomass show?

Answer 19

• the number of organisms at each trophic level multiplied by they biomass, which compensates for the difference in size among organisms

Question 20

The amount of life an ecosystem can contain is based on the _______ level of the ecological pyramid

Answer 20

• bottom

- this is where producers capture energy from the sun

Question 21

What is it important to maintain at the lowest levels of the food pyramid? (2)

Answer 21

• biodiversity

- large populations