An organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food –> primary producers
Autotroph
All organisms that get their energy requirements by consuming other organisms -> consumers
Heterotroph
To capture energy, making it available for all members of a food web
What is the job of an autotroph?
They make energy for all organisms in the ecosystem
Why are autotrophs the foundation of ecosystems?
Organisms that have chlorophyll absorb energy during photosynthesis and use it to convert the inorganic substances carbon dioxide and water to organic molecules
How do autotrophs make food?
A heterotroph that only eats plants
Herbivore
A heterotroph that prey on other heterotrophs
Carnivore
A heterotroph that eats both plants and animals
Omnivores
A heterotroph that eats fragments of dead matter in an ecosystem, returns nutrients to soil, air and water where the nutrients can be reused by organisms
Detritivores
Break down dead organisms by releasing digestive enzymes
Decomposers
To make nutrients available to other organisms
What is the job of a detritivore?
Each step in a food web or food chain
Trophic Level
Autotrophs
What is the 1st Level?
Heterotrophs
What are the 2nd Levels and Up
With the exception of the first trophic level, organisms at each trophic level get their energy from the trophic level before it
How do the organisms get their energy according to trophic levels?
A simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem
Food Chain
The one-way energy flow which typically starts with autotrophs to heterotrophs
What do the arrows represent in the food chain?
Model representing the many interconnecting food chains and pathways in which energy flows through a group of organisms
Food Webs
Each level represents the amount of energy available to that trophic level, with each step up there is an energy loss of 90%
Pyramid of Energy
Each level represents the amount of biomass consumed by the level above it
Pyramids of Biomass
Each level represents the number of individual organisms consumed by the level above it
Pyramids of Numbers
The total mass of living matter at each trophic level, decreases at each trophic level
Biomass
There is less energy available to support organisms
Why does everything decrease at each trophic level?
