Producers & Energy
What living things make their own food using energy from the sun?
Plants
What do you call an animal that eats only plants?
Herbivore
What name describes animals that keep their body temperature using energy from their bodies?
Endotherm
In a food chain, who is usually at the bottom? (one-word answer)
Producer
What is a “carnivore”? (short definition)
an animal that eats other animals.
Name one example of a food that comes from a producer that gets energy directly from the sun.
Examples: apples, lettuce, carrots, corn (any plant-based food)
What do you call an animal that eats only other animals?
Carnivore
What name describes animals that depend on the environment to warm themselves?
Ecototherms
Label the four basic levels of a trophic pyramid using these words: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer. (List from bottom to top.)
Bottom: producer → primary consumer → secondary consumer → tertiary consumer (top)
What is a “herbivore”? (short definition)
an animal that eats only plants.
Explain in one sentence how plants get the energy they need to grow.
Plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make food by photosynthesis.
What do you call an animal that eats both plants and animals?
Omnivore
Give two examples of endotherms.
humans, dogs, birds
What role do decomposers play in an ecosystem?
Decomposers break down dead organisms and return nutrients to the soil.
What is “metabolism”? (short definition)
chemical processes that break down and build molecules in the body.
The energy in animal food originally comes from what source?
The sun
Give two examples of omnivores
humans, bears, raccoons, crows
Give two examples of ectotherms.
reptiles (lizards, snakes), amphibians (frogs), most fish, many insects
Describe what a food web shows that a single food chain does not.
A food web shows many interconnected food chains and all the feeding relationships in an ecosystem, not just one path.
What does "maintain" mean?
to keep stable and consistent.
Describe how energy moves from the sun to a tertiary consumer, using the words “producer” and “consumer.”
Sunlight is used by producers (plants) to make food; a primary consumer eats the plant, a secondary consumer eats the primary consumer, and a tertiary consumer eats the secondary consumer.
Explain why some animals are classified as primary consumers and others as secondary consumers.
Primary consumers eat producers (plants); secondary consumers eat primary consumers. Classification depends on what the animal eats in the food chain.
Explain one way an endotherm maintains body temperature and one way an ectotherm does.
Endotherm: uses metabolic energy (shivering, sweating, fur, fat) to keep a stable body temperature. Ectotherm: uses behavior (basking in sun, hiding in shade) and environmental heat to change body temperature.
Use an example (plant → insect → frog → hawk) to identify which level is the primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary consumer.
Plant = producer; insect = primary consumer; frog = secondary consumer; hawk = tertiary consumer.
Define “producer” and give one example.
an organism that makes its own food using sunlight (example: grass, tree, algae).