1. Where does all life on Earth get energy from? SBI4U RHSA

2. http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/forest/ecosystems.html

3.  All energy for life on Earth comes from the Sun.  The First Law of Thermodynamics states that “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form.”  Only about 1% of the sunshine that reaches Earth is captured by plants. This heat and light energy is converted to chemical energy, in the form of glucose, by photosynthesis.  Where does most photosynthesis occur?

4. In marine ecosystems! It’s the phytoplankton. http://thomsenlab.com/home/

5.  The organisms that capture sunshine energy are called producers or autotrophs, which means “self food”.  Producers are almost always the first trophic level of any food chain.  The word troph derives from the Greek word for food.  http://ckdp.ca/2009/10/29/two-creeks-in -wheatley-holding-tree-planting-event-to- reduce-carbon/ http://ckdp.ca/2009/10/29/two-creeks-in

6. http://schoolworkhelper.net/2011/01/energy-movement-in- ecosystems-trophic-energy-pyramid/

7.  All other organisms are heterotrophs and get energy by consuming other organisms.  All herbivores, omnivores, carnivores and decomposers are heterotrophs.  Herbivores, also called primary consumers, must always be at the second trophic level, as they eat plants.  Secondary consumers could be carnivores or omnivores and are at the third trophic level.

8. http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Future- Fuels/Sci-Media/Images/Simple-ecosystem-diagram

9.  Decomposers are often hard to place in a food chain as they consume detritus from multiple trophic levels.  Fungi, worms, and many species of bacteria recycle large organic molecules into small organic molecules that can be reabsorbed.  The flow of energy is considered to be an open system as there is always more energy arriving at Earth and some heat energy always leaving Earth.  This is the opposite of the nutrient cycles like nitrogen which are part of a closed system.

10. http://wftorre07.blogspot.com/2008_ 06_01_archive.html