Transfers between trophic levels

Question 1

food chain

Answer 1

a simple way of modelling the feeding relationships between a series of organisms in an ecosystem

Question 2

trophic level

Answer 2

a term which describes the positions of an organism in a food chain or web and its feeding relationship with other organisms

Question 3

producers

Answer 3

organisms that make food by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis

Question 4

primary consumers

Answer 4

organisms that eat producers, either plants or algae

Question 5

secondary consumers

Answer 5

animals that feed on primary consumers

Question 6

tertiary consumers

Answer 6

animals that feed on secondary consumers (i.e they eat other carnivores); they are usually the top predators in an area

Question 7

decomposers

Answer 7

the final trophic level in any set of feeding relationships; these are the microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down the remains of animals and plants and return the mineral nutrients to the soil

Question 8

pyramid of numbers

Answer 8

a model of feeding relationships that represents the number of organisms at each trophic level in a food chain

Question 9

pyramid of biomass

Answer 9

a model of feeding relationships that represents the total energy store of the organisms at each trophic level in a food chain

Question 10

secondary production

Answer 10

the process of making new animal biomass from plant material that has been eaten