1. Energy Flow in Ecosystems 

2. What are the energy roles in an ecosystem
An ecosystem is the community of organisms that lives in a particular area, along with the non-living environment

3. Three roles in an ecosystem:
Producers
Consumers
Decomposers

4. Producers
Energy enters most systems as sunlight
Organisms that use the Sun’s energy to turn water and carbon dioxide into energy during photosynthesis are called producers
This includes plants and some algae

5. Consumers are classified by what they eat
Consumers are organisms that obtain their energy by feeding on other organisms
Consumers are classified by what they eat
Herbivores
Carnivores
omnivores

6. Types of Consumers
Herbivores – eat only plants
Carnivores – are consumers that eat only animals
Omnivores – are consumers that eat both plants and animals

7. Decomposers
If an ecosystem had only producers and consumers, the raw materials of life would stay locked up in wastes in the bodies of dead organisms
Decomposers break down biotic wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystem

8. Abiotic factors – are the non-living parts of an ecosystem
Biotic vs. Abiotic
Biotic factors – all of the living, or once living, parts of an ecosystem
Abiotic factors – are the non-living parts of an ecosystem
List a few of each and we will check – the abiotic factors are the hardest

9. How does energy move through an ecosystem?
Energy moves through an ecosystem when one organism eats another
Food chains – a food chain shows a series of events in which one organism eats another to obtain energy
Food webs – a food web shows the interconnected food chains in an ecosystem – food webs have arrows that show the direction of the energy flow

10. Energy Pyramids
An energy pyramid shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to the next in a food web
The most energy available is at the producer level of the pyramid
You lose 10% of the energy with every level you go up from there

11. Add a Slide Title - 2 Which organisms are the producers?
Which organisms get the least amount of energy from the system?
Which organisms is a secondary consumer?