Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

1. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

2. Ecosystem and Energy Roles • Ecosystem: all living & non-living things that interact in an environment • Energy Role in an Ecosystem • Determined by: • How it obtains energy • How it interacts with other living organisms in its ecosystem

3. Some Energy Roles • The sun: provides energy • Producers: harness energy from the sun • ex. plants • Consumers: organisms that eat something else • ex. animals • Decomposers: return energy to the environment • ex. fungus, bacteria

4. Producers • Plants harness energy from the sun through photosynthesis • They are the base of every food chain • Source of food for all other animals

5. Consumers • 4 Types • Herbivore: eats only plants • Ex. Cows, horses • Carnivore: eats only meat • Ex. Polar bear • Onmivore: eats plants and animals • Ex. Humans, grizzly bears • Scavenger: carnivore that feeds on bodies of dead organisms • Ex. Vultures

6. Decomposer • Decomposers break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment • Ex. Bacteria, fungi

7. Energy flow through biological systems

8. Food Chains • Food Chain: series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy

9. Food Chains Continued • Arrows always points in the direction of energy flow • 1st organism is always the producer • 2nd organism is the consumer that eats the producer • Primary consumer • 3rd organism is the consumer that eats the 1st level consumer • Secondary consumer • And so on…..

10. Energy Pyramid • 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: energy is not transferred from one object/organism to the next with 100% efficiency • Some of the energy is lost to the environment • Energy Pyramid shows the amounts of energy that moves from one level to the next

11. Sample Energy Pyramid

12. Energy Transfer • Only about 10% of energy is transferred from one level to the next • The other 90% is used by the organism to carry out its life processes or it is lost to the environment