ecology & the environment - feeding relationships

trophic level	definition/what it eats
producers
primary consumers
secondary consumers
tertiary consumers

producers - Organisms that produce their own organic nutrients (e.g Plants produce Glucose via Photosynthesis)

PRIMARY CONSUMERS - Herbivores that feed on Plants (Producers)

SECONDARY CONSUMERS - Predators that feed on primary consumers

TERTIARY CONSUMERS - Predators that feed on secondary consumers

what does the arrow represent

energy transferred

name for animal at the top of the food chain

apex predator

what is a detritivore + example

organisms that INTERNALLY digest dead organic matter

e.g. worm, crab

what is a decomposer + example

Organisms that release digestive enzymes on dead organisms or non-living organic matter and absorb the externally digested nutrients.

e.g. bacteria and fungi

define a food web

why are they more realistic than food chains

A network of food chains that show how energy flows through an entire ecosystem. shows the interdependence of organisms. network of interconnected food chains

as animals rarely exist on just one type of food source

how can humans (negatively) affect food webs (2)

overharvesting of food species

introduction of foreign species to a habitat

	Pyramids of Numbers	Pyramids of Biomass	Pyramids of Energy
What do they represent?

	Pyramids of Numbers	Pyramids of Biomass	Pyramids of Energy
What do they represent?	The relative number of organisms at each tropic level.	The total mass of living material at each tropic level.	The energy available at each tropic level.

pyramids of _____ and _______ are ________ pyramid-shaped

pyramids of energy always have a _____ base

pyramids of energy and biomass are always pyramid-shaped

always have a wide base (due to the large amount of energy contained within the biomass of producers)

how much energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next

only ~10% of energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next.

percentage efficiency transfer formula

why do food chains normally not have more than 4/5 trophic levels

because the total amount of energy available eventually becomes too small to support another trophic level

e.g. 1000J to 100J to 10J to 1J and 0.1 is very small

how is only 10% transferred, where is it lost

energy lost via respiration (heat)/used in life processes

not all organism is eaten

not all organism is absorbed - some is egested/not DIGESTED

die/decomposes??? idk what this means tho