Ch. 6: Energy in Ecosystems Vocabulary: producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, decomposer, food chain, food web, energy pyramid

Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers Energy for all living things comes from the sun. But only a few organisms can access it directly. All living things are categorized by how they get energy. Living things get their energy by making their own food using sunlight are called producers. Living things that get their energy by eating other living things are called consumers. Living things that get their energy from eating dead plants and animals are called decomposers.

Producers Producers are also called plants. Plants are the only organisms that are able to make their own food using sunlight.

Consumers All animals are consumers. They are unable to make their own food using sunlight. Consumers are broken into three different groups: –Herbivores: Only Eat Plants –Carnivores: Only Eat Other Animals –Omnivores: Eat Both Plants and Animals » Herbivore » Carnivore » Omnivore

Decomposers Most scientists agree that decomposers are at the bottom of every food chain. They take the leftovers of dead plants and animals and their poo and break them down into nutrients that plants can get out of the soil. Some examples of decomposers are insects, bacteria and fungi.

Food Chains Food chains are the paths that energy follows from one organism to another.

Food Chains All the food energy on Earth comes from the sun. Producers take sunlight and change it into chemical energy that they can use. Consumers eat the producers, or other consumers and take their energy from them. Decomposers eat what is left over and return the nutrients to the soil. Except for producers, all the living things on Earth get energy from other living things.

Food Webs Food chains are simple ways to show how the energy from the sun travels from organism to organism, but usually there is not one predator for every prey. In order to show how energy moves in an ecosystem scientists have developed the food web by linking many food chains together.

Energy Pyramids Remember, all the energy for the living things on Earth comes from the sun. An energy pyramid shows how that energy is lost as it passes from producers to consumers. Producers use most of their energy to survive, they only pass some that they make up to the next level of the pyramid that eats them. The bottom always contains the producers, and the top always contains the most efficient predators in an ecosystem. Because of the energy pyramid higher level carnivores and omnivores need to eat more food than lower level prey and producers in order to survive.

Questions about Chapter 6 1.Of the five different types of organisms presented in chapter 6, name the four types of consumers. 2.Where do producers get the energy they need? 3.Draw a food chain that contains 4 links. 4.What group of living things makes up the bottom level of the energy pyramid?