Food Chain Flashcards
Biotic factors
The relationships between LIVING organisms
What order do food chains follow? (A)
Primary producer–>primary consumer–>secondary consumer–>tertiary consumer–>quaternary consumer
What order do food chains typically follow? (B)
Plant–>herbivore–>carnivore–>carnivore–>carnivore
What is an example of a food chain?
Phytoplankton–>zooplankton–>herrings–>tuna–>shark
Define food chain.
A food chain shows how energy passes from one organism to another.
Define food web.
A diagram showing the energy flow in ecosystems.
Example of a food web
Acorns (oak tree)–>mouse–>(snake–>)hawk
What do arrows in food webs/chains represent?
The energy flow.
Energy use example
If caterpillar consumes 200j
100j-feces, 33j growth (new biomass), 67j cellular respiration
How much energy is transferred and lost between each trophic level?
10% is transferred; 90% is lost.
What does a pyramid of energy show?
The amount of energy available at each trophic level.
Create the energy pyramid.
10j tertiary 100j secondary 1,000j primary 10,000j plants/producers 1,000,000j sunlight
How much of your body weight do you need to eat to maintain it?
10 times your body weight each year.
How much does the average teen eat?
4 pounds each day.
If you weighed 146 pounds, how much should you eat to stay that weight?
1,460 pounds that year.
What does your final weight depend on?
Calorie expenditure.
Why should you eat lower on the food chain?
90% of plants spared; 9 more people fed when eating on a lower food chain diet.
If you ate beef and you weighed 150 pounds, how much cow would you need to eat and how much corn would that total?
1,500 lbs of cow=15,000 lbs of corn. You could simply eat 1,500 lbs of corn.
How much water do cows drink? How much do they poop?
15 gal of water/day; 50 lbs of manure/day
Livestock are fed what percent of all harvested grain?
40%.
What can manure do to the water supply?
Manure pollutes water supply.
What do cows produce when they poop?
Methane gas; this increases air pollution.
What is another reason that raising cattle is bad for the environment?
They use up land to be used for rain forests or crops.
What is a pyramid of numbers?
A diagram that shows the population of each trophic level.
An example of a pyramid of numbers?
Trophic level---Number of individual organisms Tertiary cons.---3 Secondary cons.---300,000 Primary cons.---700,000 Primary prod.--- 5,000,000
