Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Energy flow through Ecosystems. Producers Use energy from the sun and convert it to Chemical energy through photosynthesis. Also known as Autotrophs or.

Similar presentations


Presentation on theme: "Energy flow through Ecosystems. Producers Use energy from the sun and convert it to Chemical energy through photosynthesis. Also known as Autotrophs or."— Presentation transcript:

1 Energy flow through Ecosystems

2 Producers Use energy from the sun and convert it to Chemical energy through photosynthesis. Also known as Autotrophs or “self-feeders” Includes plants, some bacteria and photosynthetic protists such as phytoplankton. CO 2 +H 2 0  C 6 H 12 O 2 + O 2

3 Consumers Organisms that must get their energy by eating other organisms. All animals are consumers. Also know as Heterothrophs, because they must get their nutrients from an outside source. Different degrees of Consumers

4 Primary Consumers 1 o Consumers are animals that eat plants. All Herbivores are 1 o Consumers

5 Secondary Consumers Animals that eat Primary Consumers Carnivores that eat herbivores are 2 o consumers Examples : cougar eat deer Bird eating a grasshopper

6 Tertiary Consumer A carnivore that eats and animal that eats animals that eats plants are 3 o consumers Examples: -Hawk eats the bird that ate the grasshopper -A fish that ate a fish that ate algae 3 o consumers are susceptible to toxins building up in the food chain.

7 Quaternary Consumer Animals that eat animals that eat animal that eats animals that eats plants are 4 o consumers. A killer whale that eats a seal that ate a fish that ate krill that ate plankton is an a 4 o consumer.

8 Energy is lost At each trophic level energy is lost as heat and waste, so only between 1-10% of the energy consumed is available to the next level.

9 If 10,000 units of energy come from the sun…

10 Most of the energy from the sun is absorbed as heat or is reflected by the atmosphere.

11 So plants only get to use about 10% of the 10,000 units of energy or about 1000 units. The herbivores only get about 10% of that as plants use a lot of energy in their growth and maintenance. So they get about 100 units

12 So by the time a quaternary consumer comes along, there is only 0.1 units of energy left. Not much!.01 units 1 unit 10 units 100 units 1000 units

13 That’s why there are fewer carnivores than herbivores in an ecosystem. As energy passes through the trophic levels, energy is lost as heat and waste at each level. So there may be 200 or more deer in the range of one mountain lion.

14 Food Webs Sun Grass/SeedsPinion/nuts Juniper/Berries AntsMouseDeer Horned Lizard Coyote Bear Cougar


Download ppt "Energy flow through Ecosystems. Producers Use energy from the sun and convert it to Chemical energy through photosynthesis. Also known as Autotrophs or."

Similar presentations


Ads by Google