Food Chains & Trophic Levels
Plants that make their own food
What are producers?
A change in one species that causes changes in many others
What is a trophic cascade?
Species that have a really big impact on its ecosystem, even if there aren't many of them
What is a keystone species?
They keep sea urchins from eating all the kelp
How do sea otters help protect the kelp forests?
The sun
What is the main source of energy for most food webs?
The top level of a food chain
What is the apex predator level?
Plants get eaten faster than they can grow back
What is overgrazing?
This large animal helps shape the African savanna by knocking down trees
What is an elephant?
They change where elk go, which helps trees grow back
How do wolves influence plant growth in Yellowstone?
They keep plant-eating animals from getting too many
How do predators help the ecosystem?
Animals that eat plants
What is a primary consumer?
Too many herbivores and not enough plants
What happens when the predator disappears?
This fish helps coral reefs by eating the algae that grows too fast
What is a parrotfish?
They create ponds that many animals use
How do beavers change their environment?
A change in one part affects the whole system
What is an ecosystem interaction?
Animals that eat other animals
What are carnivores?
A change at the top affects everything below
What is a top-down effect?
Small animal that creates small burrows for other species to use for shelter
What is a prairie dog?
They keep mussels from taking over tide pools
Kelp forests collapse without them
What happens when sea otters are gone?
A diagram that shows who eats whom
What is a food chain?
Wolves returning to Yellowstone changed the elk and plant growth
What is an example of a trophic cascade?
This animal helps forests by eating fruit and spreading the seeds as it eats the fruit
What is a bat?
They build reef structures that shelter many fish
How do corals support ocean ecosystems?
Plants, animals, and predators working together
What is an ecosystem?