Food Chains and Food Webs

Question 1

heterotrophs

Answer 1

an organism that cannot synthesize its own food and is dependent on complex organic substances for nutrition

Question 1

autotrophs

Answer 1

producers; organisms that can produce their own organic compounds from inorganic compounds

Question 2

producers

Answer 2

an organism that is capable of converting radiant energy or chemical energy into carbohydrates

Question 3

anaerobic

Answer 3

without oxygen

Question 4

chemotrophs

Answer 4

autotrophic bacteria that uses chemosynthesis to produce energy in anaerobic environments

Question 5

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

Answer 5

The amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem; the amount of sugar that the plants produce in photosynthesis minus the amount of energy the plants need for growth, maintenance repair, and reproduction

Question 6

Gross Primary Productivity

Answer 6

the amount of sugar plants produce during photosynthesis

Question 7

consumers

Answer 7

organisms that must obtain food energy from secondary sources, for example, by eating plant or animal matter

Question 8

primary consumer

Answer 8

organisms that consume producers (plants and algae)

Question 9

secondary consumer

Answer 9

organisms that consume primary consumers

Question 10

tertiary consumer

Answer 10

organisms that consume secondary consumers or other tertiary consumers

Question 11

detritivores

Answer 11

organisms that derive energy from consuming nonliving organic matter, such as dead animals or fallen leaves

Question 12

decomposers

Answer 12

organisms that consume dead plant and animal material - the process of decomposition returns nutrients to the environment

Question 13

saprotrophs

Answer 13

decomposers that use enzymes to break down dead organisms and absorb the nutrients

Question 14

trophic level

Answer 14

one of the feeding levels in a food chain

Question 15

food chain

Answer 15

a succession of organisms in an ecological community that constitutes a continuation of food energy from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and, in turn, is preyed upon by a higher member

Question 16

10% rule

Answer 16

in a food chain, only about 10% of the energy is transferred from one level to the next

Question 17

energy pyramid

Answer 17

the structure obtained if we organize the amount of energy contained in producers and consumers on an ecosystem by kilocalories per square meter, from largest to smallest

Question 18

food web

Answer 18

a complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community