Energy Flow (The 10% Rule)
This is the primary source of energy for almost all ecosystems on Earth.
What is the Sun?
This is the scientific name for Producers, meaning organisms that make their own food.
What are Autotrophs?
This is the term for an area of land where all water drains into the same place.
What is a Watershed?
These microscopic organisms are the primary producers for ocean food webs.
What is Phytoplankton?
In a food chain, the arrows always point in the direction of this.
What is Energy Transfer (or the organism receiving energy)?
This is the percentage of energy that is lost as heat when moving from one trophic level to the next.
What is 90%?
This is the scientific name for Consumers, meaning organisms that must eat others for energy.
What are Heterotrophs?
This is an underground layer of rock or gravel that holds water.
What is an Aquifer?
Along with plants and phytoplankton, these organisms are listed in the notes as a major example of Producers.
What is Algae?
This type of diagram shows a "single path" of energy flow.
What is a Food Chain?
These organisms are always found at the very bottom (base) of an energy pyramid.
What are Producers (or Autotrophs)?
A "Secondary Consumer" typically eats these organisms, which are found on the level below them.
What are Primary Consumers (or Herbivores)?
The process of water soaking down through soil and rock into the ground.
What is Percolation (or Infiltration)?
Oceans help regulate Earth's temperature because they have a high capacity for this.
What is Heat?
This type of diagram is "more realistic" because it shows many interconnected food chains.
What is a Food Web?
If the producers in an ecosystem have 20,000 units of energy, this is how much energy is available to the secondary consumers.
What is 200 units?
These organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, return nutrients like Nitrogen and Carbon back to the soil.
What are Decomposers?
Water that flows over the land surface instead of soaking in.
What is Surface Runoff?
This is the process Producers use to turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose.
What is Photosynthesis?
These are the non-living parts of an ecosystem, such as temperature and wind.
What are Abiotic Factors?
If a Tertiary Consumer (the 4th level) has 5 units of energy, this is how many units the Producers at the very bottom must have started with.
What is 5,000 units?
This term is used in the notes to describe the very highest level of consumers, such as Tertiary Consumers.
What are Top Predators?
These are the high points of land that separate different watersheds.
What are Divides?
According to the "Human Impact" slides, this term describes an area with so little oxygen that most marine life cannot survive.
What is a Dead Zone?
If one species is removed from this diagram, it can affect many other organisms in the ecosystem.
What is a Food Web?