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Energy and the Ecosystem

Energy and the Ecosystem. Questions for Today:. How does energy flow in Ecosystems? What happens to usable Energy as it travels through a food chain or web?. Review. Life on Earth Depends on three interconnected factors: The one-way flow of high quality energy.

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Energy and the Ecosystem

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  1. Energy and the Ecosystem

  2. Questions for Today: • How does energy flow in Ecosystems? • What happens to usable Energy as it travels through a food chain or web?

  3. Review • Life on Earth Depends on three interconnected factors: • The one-way flow of high quality energy. • The cycling of matter or nutrients. • Gravity

  4. Food Chains and Food Webs • Energy in the Ecosystem is transferred through the different trophic (feeding) levels. • Food Chain – a sequence of organisms, each of which serves as a source of food or energy for the next. • Food Webs – a series of interconnected Food Chains. • Chemical energy and nutrients travel through trophic levels primarily through photosynthesis, feeding, and decomposition.

  5. Food Chains and Food Webs • As chemical energy travels through trophic levels, some useful energy is lost to the environment as heat. • This would result in the collapse of the ecosystem or biosphere if it weren’t for the Sun.

  6. Food Chains and Food Webs

  7. Energy Efficiency • The Chemical Energy in Ecosystems are stored in biomass. • Biomass – the dry weight of all organic matter contained in its organisms. • Energy transfer through food chains is not very efficient and a lot of the energy is lost as heat. • The percentage of usable chemical energy transferred as biomass from one trophic level to the next is called Ecological Efficiency. • 10% is usually the normal Ecological Efficiency

  8. Energy Efficiency Question • Assuming 10% ecological efficiency, if green plants capture 10,000 units of energy, how much chemical energy will be available to support herbivores and carnivores?

  9. Energy Efficiency

  10. Energy Efficiency • Energy pyramids help explain how: • The earth can sustain populations better if they eat at lower trophic levels. • Ecosystems usually only have 4 or 5 Trophic levels.

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