Energy Sources
The initial source of energy for almost all terrestrial and aquatic food webs.
What is the Sun?
An organism that makes its own food through photosynthesis.
What is a producer?
In a food web diagram, what do the arrows represent?
What is the flow of matter and energy?
If the grass in a field died off, what would happen to the rabbit population that eats it?
It would decrease (due to lack of food).
True or False: Matter is continuously cycled through an ecosystem.
What is true?
When a consumer eats a producer, where did that energy originally come from?
What is the Sun?
They get energy by eating other organisms.
What are consumers?
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
What is a chain is a single path; a web is many interconnected chains?
If the number of minnows in a pond triples, what will likely happen to the algae they eat?
The algae population will decrease.
Why are decomposers essential for the soil?
They recycle nutrients back into the soil for plants to use.
Why are plants considered the most important part of the energy cycle?
What is they're the only ones that can convert sunlight into food?
Fungi and bacteria are examples of this type of organism.
What is a decomposer?
If a mouse eats a grasshopper, is the mouse a producer, consumer, or decomposer?
What is a consumer?
If you remove the wolves from a forest, what will happen to the population of deer they hunt?
The deer population will increase.
What happens to the matter of a dead log over many years?
It is broken down into simple nutrients by decomposers.
The three things plants need from their environment to perform photosynthesis and make their own food.
What is water, air(carbon dioxide) and sunlight?
A consumer that eats BOTH plants and animals.
What is an omnivore?
What is the correct order for energy flow between: Consumer, Sun, Producer?
What is: Sun --> Producer --> Consumer
What would happen to a forest if all the decomposers were suddenly removed?
Waste/dead matter would pile up and nutrients wouldn't recycle.
While energy is lost over each level of a food chain, what happens to "matter" in a food web?
It is recycled/reused.
Where do plants get the materials to build their physical mass (stems and leaves)?
What is water and air(carbon dioxide)?
A consumer that eats only other animals.
What is a carnivore?
Is a food web or a food chain a more realistic model of an ecosystem?
What is a food web?
In a food chain with wolves, elk, and trees, how does a decrease in wolves change how many trees are left in the forest?
If the wolf population decreases, the trees would likely start to disappear.
Why can't an ecosystem survive with only producers and consumers? (What role is missing?)
It needs Decomposers to recycle nutrients so the producers can keep growing.