The primary source of energy that kicks off almost every food chain.
What is the sun?
An organism, like a rabbit, that eats only plants.
What is an herbivore (or primary consumer)?
The main role of decomposers in an ecosystem.
What is recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem/soil?
The term for a network of interconnecting food chains.
What is a food web?
This percentage of energy is transferred from one trophic level up to the next.
What is 10%?
The process plants use to turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose.
What is photosynthesis?
A grizzly bear that eats both berries and salmon is called this.
What is an omnivore?
These two microorganisms are the most common decomposers in any ecosystem.
What are bacteria and fungi?
The direction the arrows point in a food web diagram.
What is toward the consumer (the organism getting the energy)?
The reason energy pyramids are always wider at the bottom than at the top.
What is because producers have the most energy/highest population (and energy is lost as heat)?
The cell structure in plants where photosynthesis takes place.
What are chloroplasts?
A wolf that hunts and eats a rabbit is classified as this type of consumer level.
What is a secondary consumer (or carnivore)?
The material decomposers break down to return nutrients to the soil.
What is dead organic matter (or detritus)?
If a disease wipes out the grasshopper population, this will likely happen to the lizards that eat them.
What is their population will decrease (due to starvation)?
The term used to describe each individual feeding step or level in a food chain.
What is a trophic level?
The chemical substance produced by plants during photosynthesis that provides energy for consumers.
What is glucose (or sugar)?
A hawk that eats a snake, which ate a frog, which ate a cricket, is operating at this consumer level.
What is a quaternary consumer (or fourth-level consumer)?
The term for small animals (like earthworms or woodlice) that feed on dead organic matter before bacteria break it down.
What are detritivores (or scavengers)?
The term for a species that has a massive, critical impact on maintaining the balance of its entire food web.
What is a keystone species?
If the producer level has 10,000 kcal of energy, this is how much energy is available to the secondary consumers.
What is 100 kcal?