1. J. Quigley
2012

2.  Everything that organisms do require energy.
Running, breathing, and even sleeping! Every
species must somehow get food for energy.
 Grass grows by making energy from the sun,
a zebra eats grass in the savanna, a lion eats
the zebra and the lion eventually dies and is
eaten by scavengers. The rest of the lions
carcass is decomposed by bacteria and
fungus.
 At each step in this process, energy flows
through the ecosystem

3.  An organism eating
another organism is
the most obvious
interaction in a
community. This
interaction
transfers energy
through an
ecosystem.
 Each level of
energy transfer is a
trophic level

4.  The primary source
of energy in an
ecosystem is the
sun.
 Photosynthetic
organisms make
their energy from
the sun and are
called producers
 Plants,trees, grasses,
herbs, fruits,
vegetables, nuts,
berries…

5.  Are organisms that
eat producers.
 They are called
herbivores
 “Herb” means
plant and “vore”
means eating
 Cow, horse,
rhinoceros, zebra,
rabbit, squirrel…

6.  A secondary
consumer eats
primary consumers
 They are called
carnivores
 “Carni” means
meat and “vore”
means eating
 Wolf,lion, shark,
owl, cats…

7.  These organisms
eat dead things.
 Scavengerseat the
meat off of a dead
carcass
 Vultures, small
carnivores like
coyotes, hyenas…
 Decomposers
recycle or break
down the remains of
a dead organism
 Bacteria and fungus

8.  In an ecosystem
the energy flows
from the sun to
the primary
consumers to the
secondary
consumers to the
scavengers and
decomposers.

9.  The energy flow through organisms in an
ecosystem
 Example:
 Nuts give energy to a squirrel who gives energy to a
fox, when the fox dies it gives energy to a vulture
and bacteria.

10.  In most
ecosystems
energy does
not follow a
simple food
chain. Energy
flow is much
more
complicated.
Most organisms
eat more than
one kind of
food…
 A food web is
many food
chains put
together

12.  Energy is stored at each link in a food web.
But some energy that is used is lost as heat
into the environment and is not recycled.
 10% rule… When a zebra eats 20 pounds of
grass 18 pounds are used for the zebra to
run, mate, play, find more food, walk, sleep,
make babies…only 2 pounds stay with the
zebra and are available to the next trophic
level

13.  If a human eats a large fish in the 3rd trophic
level it takes 1000kg of producers to make a
1gk human
 If a human eats a cow in the 2nd trophic level,
it takes 100kg of producers to make a 1kg
human
 If a human eats producers, it only takes 10kg
of producers to make a 1kg human…
 Hmmm… maybe we should all eat more
producers and it will help fight starvation all
over the world and protect the
environment!!!

14.  A triangular
diagram that
shows an
ecosystem’s loss of
energy, which
results as energy
passes through the
ecosystems food
chain

15.  The bottom is the lowest trophic level, has
the most energy and is made from producers
 The middle layer is made of herbivores
(primary consumers) and has less energy than
the bottom
 The top layer is made of carnivores
(secondary consumers) and contains the least
amount of energy