Where did your dinner come from? With a partner sitting next to you: List the types of food you ate for dinner
last nightEx. pizza, cheese, pepperoni, breadsticks,
jello
Under each item, write the name of the plant, animal, or other organism that was the source for that food(Some foods have more than one source)
Energy Roles Energy Role: determined by how an
organism obtains energy and interacts with other organismsProducer, consumer, or decomposer
Producers
Producer: an organism that can make its own foodSource of all the food in an ecosystemMost ecosystems obtain energy from
sunlightFew ecosystems obtain energy from gas
Consumers Consumers: an organism that
obtains energy by feeding on other organismsHerbivores: consumers that eat only
plantsCarnivores: consumers that eat only
meatOmnivores: eat both plants and
animals
Decomposers Decomposers: break down wastes and
dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystemNature’s own recyclersEx. Mushrooms and bacteria
Talk to your neighbor!!
What do herbivores and carnivores have in common?
What is the role of decomposers?
What do you know about ecosystems?
Food Chains and Food Webs Food Chain: a series of events in which one
organism eats another in order to obtain energyProducer: first organism- plant First level consumer: second organism, feeds on
the producer, herbivore or omnivore Second level consumer: an organism that eats
the first level consumer, carnivore or omnivore Third level consumer: eats the second level
consumer, also a carnivore
Food Chains and Food Webs A food chain only shows one possible path
of energy flow through an ecosystem. Food Web: many overlapping food chains in
an ecosysteman organism can play more than one role in
an ecosystem
Food chains and food webs can interconnectex. a gull might eat a fish at the ocean and a
mouse at a landfill (ocean and land food web)
Share with your neighbor! What energy role is filled by the first
organism in a food chain?
How can an organism be both a first and second level consumer?
Energy Pyramids
How do organisms obtain energy?When an organism eats, it obtains energy.
Energy Pyramid: a diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food webMost energy is available at the producer
levelEach level has less energy available
Energy Pyramids
10% of energy at one level is transferred to the next level
Where does the other 90 percent go? The other 90% is used for the
organism’s life processes or is lost to the environment as heat
The amount of energy limits the number of consumers an ecosystem can support.