5-Energy & Biomass In Food Chains Flashcards
How do plants and algae use the solar energy?
They use a small fraction in photosynthesis, which is stored in substances that make up the cells of the plant.
What is the source of energy for all communities of living organisms?
Radiation from the sun.
How can the energy transfer from organism to organism be represented?
By a food chain.
Why is biomass and energy lost at every stage of a food chain?
Materials and energy lost through faeces (waste).
Energy released through respiration used up in movement and lost as heat energy.
Why do warm-blooded mammals lose more energy?
Their bodies must be kept at a constant temperature, higher than their surroundings. So uses lots of energy to achieve this.
The mass of living material (biomass) at each stage of a food chain is MORE/LESS than at the previous stage.
LESS.
What is biomass?
The mass of living material.
What can the biomass at each stage of a food chain be represented by?
A pyramid of biomass.
What is the base of the pyramid?
The producer.
What are the stages 2 onwards of the pyramid called?
Primary, secondary, tertiary etc.
Where is a lot of biomass lost in primary, secondary, tertiary etc. consumers?
In their faeces/droppings.
What do you need to know to construct a biomass pyramid?
Biomass is mass if living material.
Producers placed on bottom.
Pyramid represents total biomass at each stage, not number of organisms.
