Intro: Food Chains + Energy Transfers Flashcards
How many groups can organisms be divide into? What are these groups based on? What are the groups called?
Organisms can be split into three groups according to how they obtain their energy and nutrients. The three groups: producers, consumers and saprobionts
What are producers?
Producers are photosynthetic organisms that manufacture organic substances using light energy, water, carbon dioxide and mineral ions
What are consumers?
Consumers are organisms that obtain their energy by feeding on (consuming) other organisms rather than using the energy of sunlight directly
What are the four types of consumers?
- Primary consumers
- Secondary consumers
- Tertiary consumers
- Quaternary consumers
What are primary consumers?
What are secondary consumers?
What are tertiary consumers?
Primary consumer = those that directly eat producers
Secondary consumers = those that eat primary consumers
Tertiary consumers = those that eat secondary consumers
What are saprobionts?
They are a group of organisms that break down the complex molecules in dead organisms into simple ones
Once saprobionts have broken down dead organisms, what do they release?
Saprobionts release valuable minerals and elements in a form that can be absorbed by plants, contributing to recycling
What are food chains?
Food chains describe the feeding relationship in which producers are eaten by primary consumers, these in turn are eaten by secondary consumers, which are then consumed by tertiary structures
In a long food chain, what can be different?
In a long food chain, tertiary consumers may be eaten by further consumers called quaternary consumers
What is each stage in a food chain referred to as?
A trophic level
What do the arrows in a food chain show?
The direction of energy flow
How do plants use the sugars from photosynthesis?
Primarily the sugars are used as respiratory substrates. The remainder is used to synthesise (make) other biological molecules (like cellulose)
What forms biomass?
The biological molecules from the remainder of the synthesised sugar are used to form biomass
What is biomass?
The total mass of living matter in a specific area at a given time
Why is biomass measured using dry mass or carbon mass instead of fresh mass?
Fresh biomass is easily accessible but since there is a varying amount of water present it makes the mass unreliable. This is why, the mass of carbon or dry mass is used to overcome this problem.
