Chapter 3 - Energy Flows Through Ecosystems Flashcards
Where does all energy come from?
All energy on earth comes from the sun.
How do organisms obtain energy?
Through producers and consumers.
What are producers? What are examples of some?
Producers, or autotrophs, obtain energy from nonliving sources.
Most capture energy during photosynthesis to make simple sugars.
For example, plants, algae, and cyanobacteria.
How do producers obtain their energy?
Photosynthesis and CHEMOSYNTHESIS
Both use nonliving sources for energy.
Photosynthesis [ source of energy + examples + equations ]
Source of energy - Sunlight
Examples - Green plants and cyanobacteria
CO2 + H20 ➡️ sugar + O2
CHEMOSYNTHESIS [ source of energy + examples + equations ]
Source of energy - Chemicals and sulfur-rich salt marsh
Example - Deep sea vent bacteria
CO2 +water + H2S + O2 ➡️ sugar + sulfuric acid
What are consumers? What are examples of some?
Consumers, or heterotrophs, obtain energy from living or once living organisms.
Example- Animals, fungus, people
How do you consumers obtain energy?
Consumers eat other organisms to get energy.
They break down the macromolecules inside of the organisms to release ATP in a process called cellular respiration.
What is cellular respiration?
A process in which organisms break down Macro molecules to release ATP
What are four types of consumers?
Herbivores, Carnivores, omnivores, detritivores
Herbivore
Consume only vegetation
Carnivore
Consumes only meats
Omnivore
Can eat meat and vegetation
Detritivores
Decomposer-eat dead materials
What is a food chain?
Food chains trace a single flow of energy and show trophic levels
Example-grass, grasshopper, mouse, owl
Tropic levels
The levels of nourishment in a food chain
What is energy used for as it flows from organisms to organisms?
Metabolism and/or converted to heat
Rule of 10
The next organism on the chain only received 10% of the energy obtained in the previous level.
The other 90% is used or lost as heat.
Aspects in a trophic pyramid
- Label trophic level numbers
- Label trophic level names
- Label percentage of energy available
Where does everything in the food chain go when it dies?
Decomposers
Levels of energy flow
Producer, primary consumer, Secondary consumer, tertiary consumer
