Vocabulary
The individual levels in a food chain, food web or food pyramid.
Trophic levels
The area of a food chain, web, or pyramid where the MOST energy is found.
The first trophic level, where all the PRODUCERS (grass and plants) are found. Grass and plants have the most energy.
All living things in an environment are called what factors?
One way animals interact in their environments is by performing specific roles or filling a _____
Niche
What would happen to an ecosystem if mid-level consumers died out?
grass-->bug-->squirrel-->
-->owl-->fox-->wolf
The higher level consumers would begin dying out and the lower level consumers would begin overrunning the producers.
Any organism that creates its own food.
Producers.
All food webs begin with what organism?
producers
Herbivores
Eat only plants
Bees use the pollen from flowers to make honey. As they fly from flower to flower they carry bits of pollen and drop it off at new flowers. This is an interaction called symbiosis. Which form of symbiosis is shown here?
This is a form of Mutualism because the bees get the food they need and the flowers are pollinated without being harmed. Both organisms benefit from the interaction.
What happens to a deer population when all the predators die out and how does that affect local resources?
Deer quickly overpopulate the region and the resources are over-consumed, causing a die-off.
A group of the same species living in the same area at the same time.
population
The energy for all food webs is driven/derived from what source?
The sun
Decomposers
Break down dead matter and turn it into nutrients
If a mosquito bites you, you get a big itchy bump and the mosquito gets a free meal. What form of symbiosis is this?
You are harmed and the mosquito is not (unless you manage to squash the little blood drinker before it flies off). Therefore, this is a form of parasitism.
Explain how energy moves in a food chain from one organism to the next and how energy is lost.
Energy begins with the sun, goes into the producer, which is where the majority of the energy is found. As the energy is consumed at each trophic level, more and more energy is "lost", meaning organisms must eat more to survive. This explains why we need more producers than consumers in order for an ecosystem to live.
Fungi and bacteria that break down dead matter and help return it to the ecosystem.
Decomposers
True or false: (You must explain your answer)
Carnivores rely on grass and other plants for their energy.
True. Carnivores are incapable of producing their own energy, therefore they must eat animals that eat grass and other animals. Ultimately, all animals rely on producers for their energy.
Omnivores
Eat both meat and plants
An interactioin between one or more organisms.
symbiosis
What would happen to a grassland ecosystem if it were invaded by grasshoppers?
Many of the primary consumers would die off due to starvation, which would also affect secondary and tertiary consumers, as well as the top level predators.
Any organism that must eat another in order to gain energy.
consumers
Of the three diagrams, which shows the best flow of energy and why?
food web
food Pyramid
Food Chain
Food web, it shows more directions that the energy flows, and does not have the energy going in only one direction.
Create their own food from the energy of the sun
producers
In this type of interaction, the host is not harmed, and the other organism benefits.
Commensalism
Explain what would happen to an ecosystem if decomposers died off.
The nutrients from dead plants and animals would not be as easily reabsorbed by the ecosystem, causing a loss of energy. Disease would spread causing additional die-offs.