TROPHIC LEVEL QUESTIONS

1) Describe how energy gets passed around within an ecosystem.

2) List and describe the differences between the five ways organisms get their energy. (producer, herbivore, etc.)

3) Describe the differences between a food chain and a food web. Which is more accurate and why?

4) What are the tropic levels?5) Describe the 10% rule and why this occurs.6) TBA (at the end of the slideshow)

TROPHIC LEVELSHow energy gets around and ecosystem.

ENERGY TRANSFER

Each time an organisms eats another organisms, energy transfer occurs.

Food chains, food webs, and trophic levels tell us how energy transfer occurs.

Each step in the chains or webs represent the transfer of energy.

Each time energy is transferred from one level to another, some energy is lost as heat and less energy is available for organisms at the next level.

PRODUCER

Makes it’s own food through photosynthesis.

Example: grasses, ferns, trees, algae

HERBIVORE

Energy comes from producers.

Example: cow, sheep, deer, grasshoppers

CARNIVORE

Get energy from other consumers.

Example: lions, hawks, spiders, sharks, whales

OMNIVORE

Get energy from both producers and consumers

Example: bears, pigs, gorillas, rats, cockroaches, humans

DECOMPOSER

Breaks down dead organisms in an ecosystem and returns nutrients to soil, water, and air.

Examples: fungi and bacteria

FOOD CHAINS Food chain: sequence in which energy is

transferred from one organism to another.

FOOD WEBS

Show many feeding relationships that are possible in an ecosystem.

• Trophic Levels

Figure 19.21

Carnivore

Carnivore

Carnivore

Herbivore

Plant

A terrestrial food chain

Quaternary consumers

Tertiary consumers

Secondary consumers

Primary consumers

Producers

Carnivore

Carnivore

Carnivore

Zooplankton

Phytoplankton

A marine food chain

CONSUMERS

Organisms which eat other organisms to obtain energy.

1. Primary Consumer: eats producers2. Secondary Consumer: eats

primary consumers.3. Tertiary Consumer: eat secondary

consumers4. Quaternary Consumer: Eat Tertiary

consumers

Figure 19.23

Quaternary,

tertiary,

and secondary consumers

Tertiary and

secondary consumers

Secondary and

primary consumers

Primary consumers

Producers (plants)

10% RULE 90% of the energy at each trophic level is used

to carry out functions of living. Only 10% is available to the next trophic level. http://www.brainpop.com/science/energy/energ

ypyramid/

Figure 19.26

Tertiary consumers

Secondary consumers

Primary consumers

Producers

10 kcal

100 kcal

1,000 kcal

10,000 kcal

What happens to energy as you go up trophic levels? Why?

6)

The feeding relationships in an ecosystem

– Think of a ecosystem and 12 organisms that live in it. Create a food web and include at least one organism for each trophic level. (Show who eats who.) Also label 6 abiotic factors that are part of your ecosystem.

12.3 QUESTIONS 1-6

POSTER ASSIGNMENT

Draw an Ecosystem with 12 organisms. Include at least one from each trophic level (producers, primary, secondary, tertiary, quarternary consumers, and decomposers). Show who eats who.

List 6 abiotic factors that are part of your ecosystem. On the back, describe how they affect organisms in the ecosystem.

Include at least 1 ecosystem cycle (water, nitrogen, and/or carbon cycle). Provide description of cycle on back.

(You will be presenting these to the class!!!)