Trophic Levels
These organisms form the base of most food chains, deep-sea and terrestrial.
What are Producers?
This pyramid shows the amount of energy available at each trophic level and is always upright because energy decreases at higher levels.
What is a pyramid of energy?
In the virtual investigation, this place had the most life of all marine ecosystems.
What is the Whale fall?
Unlike energy, these materials are reused and moved among organisms and the air, water, and soil.
What are nutrients, or matter?
The ability of organisms to have offspring is called this.
What is reproduction?
A rabbit that eats grass belongs to this trophic level and is also known by this feeding role.
What are primary consumers, or herbivores?
This approximate percentage describes the fraction of energy typically transferred from one trophic level to the next.
What is 10%?
Because sunlight cannot reach most of the abyssal plain, organisms there cannot rely primarily on this process for capturing energy.
What is photosynthesis?
This element is found in the air and is cycled through the ecosystem by both photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
What is carbon?
This is the term given to all the chemical reactions occurring within an organism.
What is metabolism?
These organisms break down dead matter and waste, returning usable nutrients to the environment but not returning energy in its original form.
What are decomposers, or Detritivores?
This type of pyramid may sometimes be inverted because one large producer, such as a tree, can support many smaller consumers.
What is a pyramid of numbers?
These deep-sea detritivores consume dead organisms and waste.
What are sea pigs?
Matter can cycle through an ecosystem, but energy must continually enter because much of it is released as this during cellular respiration and other life processes.
What is heat?
These organisms are sometimes misidentified as living because they have some but not all the characteristics of life.
What are viruses?
If a producer stores 20,000 Kcal, how much would be available to the tertiary consumer?
What is 20 Kcal?
This type of ecosystem can be represented with an upside-down biomass pyramid.
What is Marine or Aquatic?
These deep-sea microbes use energy from inorganic compounds to produce organic food.
What are chemosynthetic bacteria, or chemoautotrophs?
This element was the most difficult to obtain without the help of soil microbes and detritivores.
What is nitrogen?
This is the ability of organisms to maintain a stable internal environment.
What is homeostasis?
The top consumer in a food chain or energy pyramid is also known as this.
What is an Apex predator?
This is the reason why some ecosystems have an upside-down biomass pyramid.
What is the turnover rate?
These TWO energy sources help sustain deep-sea ecosystems.
What are marine snow, dead organisms, and chemicals from hydrothermal vents/ ocean floor?
This element is essential for the creation of DNA and RNA molecules.
What is phosphorus?
The ability of organisms to react to the environment is called this.
What is the response to stimuli?