Energy & Food
Only about this percentage of energy passes from one trophic level to the next.
10%
These are the living components of an ecosystem, such as plants, animals, and bacteria.
What are biotic factors?
These organisms break down dead matter and recycle nutrients into ecosystems.
What are decomposers?
This network of interconnected food chains shows feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
What is a food web?
This term describes the total amount of living organic matter at a trophic level.
What is biomass?
Unlike energy, which flows in one direction, nutrients move through ecosystems in this way.
What is cycling (being recycled)?
These organisms make their own food using sunlight or chemical energy.
What are autotrophs (primary producers)?
These three methods are used by ecologists to study ecosystems.
What are observation, experimentation, and modeling?
These three ecological pyramids show energy, living tissue mass, and the number of organisms.
What are energy, biomass, and numbers pyramids?