1. Energy Flow in the Biosphere,

2. Essential Question
How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

3. The Earth is SOLAR POWERED!
ALL LIVING THINGS USE ENERGY
The Earth is SOLAR POWERED!
_____________ is the main source of energy for life on Earth.
SUNLIGHT

4. AUTOTROPHS = PRODUCERS Can make their own food
ALL LIVING THINGS USE ENERGY
AUTOTROPHS = PRODUCERS Can make their own food
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Most autotrophs use _______________
to capture solar energy
Main producers on land
= green plants
In water = algae
BIOLOGY; MIller and Levine; Prentice Hall; 2006

5. HETEROTROPHS = ____________ Get energy from consuming other organisms
CONSUMERS
HETEROTROPHS = ____________ Get energy from consuming other organisms

6. HETEROTROPHS = CONSUMERS
HERBIVORES
________________ =
eat only plants
eat only animals
eat both plants & animals
CARNIVORES
OMNIVORES

7. HETEROTROPHS = CONSUMERS
DETRITIVORES
________________ =
feed on plant & animal remains
EX: mites, earthworms,
snails, crabs
break down and absorb organic matter
EX: bacteria & fungi
DECOMPOSERS

8. ↑ ↑ CONSUMERS (Heterotrophs) PRODUCERS (Autotrophs)
Energy flows through an ecosystem in a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by being eaten
CONSUMERS (Heterotrophs)
________________
_________________
= _________________ ↑ ↑
PRODUCERS (Autotrophs)
FOOD CHAIN

9. Food Chains
Food chains show the transfer of energy from the sun to producer to consumer
Arrows point in the direction that the energy is going 9

10. In most ecosystems feeding relationships are more complex
Pearson Education Inc, Publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall
In most ecosystems feeding relationships are more complex
FOOD WEB
A ______________ links ALL the food chains in an ecosystem together.

11. Ecological Pyramids
An ecological pyramid is yet another way of showing the transfer of energy in an ecosystem
They also show
How amount of available energy decreases for higher consumers
That it takes a large number of producers to support a small number of tertiary consumers

12. Ecological Pyramids
An ecological pyramid is a diagram that can show the relative amounts of energy, biomass, or numbers of organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
Energy Pyramid
Biomass Pyramid
Pyramid of Numbers

13. PRODUCERS FIRST Each step in a food chain or web = _______________
ALWAYS make up the ________
trophic level.
TROPHIC LEVEL
PRODUCERS
FIRST

14. TROPHIC LEVELS = steps in a food chain
1st trophic level is the producer
2nd trophic level is the primary consumer or herbivore
3rd level is the secondary consumer or smaller carnivore
4th level is the tertiary consumer or larger carnivore

16. This is known as the law of 10% 10%
Lower levels must be
bigger to support the
level above.
Only about_____ of
the energy from
each level is passed
on.
This is known as the law of 10%
10%

17. Some energy is used for life processes such as growth, development,
movement,
metabolism,
transport, and
reproduction.
The rest is
lost as ________
HEAT

18. Pyramid of Energy
* energy decreases at each succeeding trophic level –
only 10% of the energy goes to the next level
0.1% 1%
10%
100%
Why not 100%? Because organisms use much of the energy
for life processes (movement, reproduction) and some
is released into the environment as heat . (entropy)

19. Biomass Pyramid Biomass – total weight of living things
In a pyramid of biomass, each level represents the amount of biomass consumed by the level above it.

20. Pyramid of Numbers
Pyramid of numbers shows the relative number of organisms at each trophic level.
the number of organisms is higher at the bottom of the pyramid (producers) and lower at the top (top consumers)
Pyramid of numbers shows the relative number of organisms at each trophic level.

21. Ecological Pyramids