Food chains

Question 1

What is a food chain?

Answer 1

• Outlines what gets eaten by what in an ecosystem

Question 2

Food chain vs food web

Answer 2

• Food chain shows what gets eaten by what
• Food web is all of the food chains in an ecosystem

Question 3

What is the order of a food chain?

Answer 3

• Producer < primary consumer < secondary consumer < tertiary consumer

Question 4

What is a producer?

Answer 4

• First level of organisms in a food chain
• Organisms that make their own food (typically via photosynthesis)

Question 5

What is a primary consumer?

Answer 5

• Organisms that eat producers
• Herbivores

Question 6

What is a secondary consumer?

Answer 6

• Organisms that eat primary consumers
• Omnivores or carnivores

Question 7

What is a tertiary consumer?

Answer 7

• Organisms that eat secondary consumers
• Carnivores

Question 8

What happens to energy as we move up the food chain?

Answer 8

• As we move up the food chain, most of the energy typically get lost

Question 9

What does a food chain show about energy and where does this energy come from?

Answer 9

• A food chain shows how energy is transferred between organisms
• The source of all energy is the sun (photosynthesis)
• The arrows show in which way the energy and biomass was transferred

Question 10

What do we say about predator-prey cycles?

Answer 10

• The peak of one organism will always be lagging behind the peak of another, as it takes time to react to the change in population
• We say that the relationship between predators and prey is OUT OF PHASE

Question 11

What happens to the predator-prey cycle in stable ecosystems?

Answer 11

• The predator and prey population continously rises and falls in cycles