Food Chains
What is a Food Chain?
A connecting line of energy represented by organisms eating each other
What is a Food Web?
A series of interconnecting and overlapping food chains
What is an Energy Pyramid?
A chart representing the loss of energy as you rise through the food chain
Name a type of Ecosystem
Answers will Vary
Define Carnivore
An organism that eats only meat
What is always the base of the food chain?
Producer
If my food chain goes: Grass-Mouse-Snake-Hawk, how would you make this a food web instead?
Answers may vary
Where on an energy pyramid is the most energy found?
At the Base
If the producers in an ecosystem were to vanish, what would happen to the ecosystem?
The consumers would either leave or die
Define Herbivore
An organism that eats only plants
Where does the energy for a food chain come from?
The sun
What happens if an organism is removed from the food web?
The food web falls apart/the predator's of that organism die
In an energy pyramid, how much energy is lost per trophic level?
90%
If an ecosystem is unbalanced by a major event, what will happen to that ecosystem over time?
It will even itself out
What type of consumer are most humans?
Omnivore
In a food chain, what is the tertiary consumer?
The organism that eats the secondary consumer
Define a secondary consumer
An organism that eats the Primary consumer
What type of organism is at the top of an energy pyramid?
A tertiary consumer
What happens to an ecosystem if you remove any component
The Ecosystem falls apart
What is the difference between a scavenger and a decomposer?
A scavenger eats dead things, while a decomposer breaks them down and returns nutrients to the soil
What does the food chain always end with?
Decomposers
Draw a Food Web
Answers may vary
Why does the energy level of an energy pyramid get smaller as it nears the top?
The creatures being eaten use some of the energy to live their lives.
An ecosystem is made up of what?
All living things within an area
Name the three categories an organism can fall under in an ecosystem
Producer, Consumer, Decomposer