Easy
The Sun
Which trophic level has the least available energy?
The top/apex predator
The tertiary consumer
Why does the amount of energy decrease at higher trophic levels?
Energy is lost as heat and used for life processes
A sunflower named Sunny D brags that she gets her energy from pizza. Why is she wrong?
Plants get energy from sunlight through photosynthesis, not food!
What do we call the path that energy takes as it moves from one organism to another?
A food chain
In a food chain, energy flows from ______ to ______.
Producers to consumers
What is a producer?
An organism that makes its own food through photosynthesis
What would happen to the energy pyramid if producers disappeared?
The entire pyramid would collapse because energy would stop entering the system
A superhero named “Captain Energy” wants to travel up the energy pyramid to get stronger. What happens to his power level?
It decreases! Energy decreases as you move up trophic levels.
What are the arrows in a food chain or web showing?
The direction of energy flow
About what percentage of energy is passed to the next trophic level?
About 10%
What is an ecosystem?
All living and nonliving things that interact in an area
Name three elements that are continuously recycled in ecosystems.
Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen
You are a hawk. You eat a snake who ate a frog who ate a grasshopper who ate a plant. What trophic level are you?
You’re a tertiary consumer.
Which has more total energy — a forest or the hawks living in it?
The forest (producers always have the most energy)
What process do plants use to take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen?
Photosynthesis
What is the difference between energy flow and nutrient cycling?
Energy flows one way; nutrients are recycled
What kind of diagram shows how energy moves through different feeding levels?
An energy pyramid
A fish burps and says, “I just recycled some matter!” What’s he talking about?
Living things release carbon dioxide back into the environment.
A raccoon eats leftover pizza from a trash can. What does that make it in a food web?
An omnivore or scavenger.
A snake that eats a mouse is what type of consumer?
Secondary consumer
What is one way humans can disrupt the natural flow of energy or cycling of matter?
Pollution, deforestation, or overhunting
If a grasshopper eats grass, and a frog eats the grasshopper, how many trophic levels are there so far?
Three (producer → primary consumer → secondary consumer)
If all decomposers went on strike, what would Earth start to look like?
Covered in dead stuff — nutrients wouldn’t return to the soil.
A student says, “Energy must come from my mom’s cooking.” How is that partly true?
The food energy originally came from sunlight → plants → animals → humans.