Grade 10 Chapter 2 Ecosystem - Food Chains and Ecological Pyramids

Vocabulary flashcards covering Grade 10 Chapter 2 Ecosystem topics, including trophic levels, food chains, and the three main types of ecological pyramids.

Producer

An algae or plant that photosynthesizes and produces food.

Primary Consumer

An animal which eats the producer.

Secondary Consumer

An animal that eats the primary consumer.

Tertiary Consumer

An animal that eats the secondary consumer.

Quaternary Consumer

An animal that eats the tertiary consumer.

Apex Predator

Also called top carnivore, an organism at the top of the food chain that nothing eats (such as a quaternary consumer).

Food Chain

A diagrammatic sequence showing the feeding relationships and energy flow from producers through consumers to decomposers.

Ecological Pyramids

Diagrams used by ecologists to show energy flow through an ecosystem, representing the relative amount of energy, biomass, or numbers of organisms at each trophic level.

Pyramid of Numbers

An ecological pyramid that represents the total number of individual organisms in each trophic level, irrespective to their mass.

Pyramid of Biomass

An ecological pyramid that shows the total mass of the organisms in each trophic level, irrespective to their numbers.

Pyramid of Energy

An ecological pyramid reflecting energy available at each trophic level, where around $90\%$ of energy is lost as heat and only about $10\%$ is passed on to the next level.