energy transfer in ecosystem vocabulary trophic = nutrition –autotrophs –heterotrophs

Energy Transfer in Ecosystem

Vocabulary

• Trophic = nutrition– Autotrophs

– Heterotrophs

Autotrophs (Producers)

Heterotrophs (Consumers)

Heterotrophs

• Consumers1. Scavengers feed on the tissue of dead

organisms (both plans and animals)

Heterotrophs

• Consumers2. Herbivores eat ONLY plants.

Heterotrophs

• Consumers3. Carnivores eat ONLY animals.

Heterotrophs

• Consumers4. Omnivores eat BOTH plants and animals

Heterotrophs

• Decomposers absorb any dead material and break it down into simple nutrients or fertilizers

Transfer of Energy

Trophic Levels…

…represent different levels in a food web.

Food Webs• We represent the energy flow from one trophic

level to another as a food web.• (Most organisms eat more than one different

species.)

Food Web

• Notice that the direction the arrow points

• The arrow points in the direction of the energy transfer, NOT “what ate what”.

Ecological Pyramid

1. Which level has the most energy?2. Which level has the most

organisms?3. Which level has the fewest

organisms?4. Which level has the least energy?

Ecological Pyramid