The Crazy Food Chain 

1. The Crazy Food Chain  BY: Maggie Gibson, Kayla Range, & Carson Spruiell

2. Definition A food Chain describes how energy in an ecosystem flows from one organism to another. It also shows the ways in which the organisms in an ecosystem interact with one another according to what they eat.

4. Describe • The food chain is when consumers eat consumers and producers that are lower on the food chain than they are. The organisms in a food chain are lined up by what eats what.

6. Research • A producer makes it’s own food from raw materials and energy. Almost all food chains begin with the sun. You and all other animals are consumers. A consumer gets energy by eating food not producing it. First- level consumers eat plants or other producers. Birds are second- level consumers. They eat other consumers. The cat is a third- level consumer. All consumers rely on plants. With out plants there wouldn’t be a food chain.

7. Research • First-level consumers are herbivores. Second-level consumers are carnivores. Some consumers are omnivores. Decomposers such as mushrooms and bacteria are consumers that break down the tissues of dead organisms. They use nutrients from the dead tissue as food. What they don’t use becomes part of the soil. Soil that has a lot of nutrients helps the helps the producers grow. Decomposers connect both ends of the food chain.

8. Examples • Producers capture the suns energy to make food. They come first in the food chain and are mostly made up of grass and other plants. A caterpillar is a first level consumer that eats leaves. A bird is a second level consumer that eat a caterpillar. A cat is a third level consumer that eats a bird. Decomposers come last, and they break down the decaying remains of dead producers and consumers. • Grass -> caterpillar -> bird -> cat -> worm