Energy and Feeding Roles
This type of organism—also known as a producer—makes its own food using sunlight or chemical compounds.
What is an autotroph?
A single direct path showing energy transfer from one autotroph to 1–3 heterotrophs is known as this.
What is a food chain?
In a local forest ecosystem featuring grass, flowers, butterflies, frogs, foxes, and hawks, this specific organism acts as the autotroph at the base of the entire food web.
What are grass and flowers?
Unlike autotrophs, these organisms are consumers that must rely on other organisms for food.
What is a heterotroph?
This network consists of several interconnected food chains within an ecosystem.
What is a food web?
A flea attaches itself to a red fox in the forest, feeding on its blood and causing severe itching and skin infections that weaken the fox over time. This relationship is an example of this specific type of symbiosis.
What is parasitism?
This type of heterotroph breaks down dead organic matter.
What is a decomposer?
In a predator-prey relationship, a sudden decrease in the prey population creates this specific challenge for the predator.
What is difficulty surviving and raising offspring?
Honeybees collect pollen and nectar from fruit trees for nourishment while simultaneously aiding the trees in reproduction by transferring pollen to form seeds. This mutually beneficial relationship is an example of this type of symbiosis.
What is mutualism?
These specific heterotrophs feed exclusively on autotrophs, such as grass and flowers.
What are herbivores?
Removing this critical organism from a food web causes major disruptions because so many other species depend on it for balance.
What is a keystone species?
In the New Jersey ecosystem, foxes, small birds, and frogs all prey on insects. When these three different species target the same limited insect population, they are engaging in this interaction.
What is competition?
This fundamental type of organism is always found at the very base of every food chain or food web.
What is a producer (or autotroph)?
A hawk hunting and eating small prey like rabbits or birds represents this specific type of consumer within a food web.
What is a carnivore (or top predator)?
Barnacles attach themselves to the shell of a sea turtle so they can ride along to nutrient-rich waters for food, while the turtle is completely unharmed and unaffected by their presence. This scenario represents this specific type of symbiotic relationship.
What is commensalism?