Name______________________________

Period_____

9.6 Guided Reading

Flow of Energy

As you carefully read through the text, answer the following questions as completely as possible!

Energy and Producers

1. Energy is the ability to do __________________.

2. In organisms, what does “work” refer to?

3. All organisms need a supply of _______________________ to stay alive.

4. Some organisms get energy directly from the _______________, while other organisms need to get energy from other _________________________.

5. Energy is constantly ____________________________ through a community.

Producers

6. The energy from the sun is first captured by __________________________, organisms that can make their own food.

7. Many producers make their own food through the process of ____________________________.

8. The “food” the producers make is called _________________________.

9. Describe the process of photosynthesis.

10. What is the formula for photosynthesis?

11. What are the dominant producers on land? What are the most common producers in the oceans?

Consumers and Decomposers

12. Organisms that must consume other organisms to get food for energy are called _________________________.

13. List and describe the four different types of consumers.

14. Why does the stability of ecosystems depend on the actions of the decomposers? Explain.

Food Chains and Food Webs

15. Food chains show the _____________________ patterns of an ecosystem.

16. What shape is used to show the feeding relationships between organisms? Which way do they point? Explain.

17. Describe the relationship between primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers.

18. Explain why simple food chains are rare in nature.

19. What is a food web? Explain how food chains and food webs are related.

Energy Pyramids

20. Only about ten percent of the total energy from a plant gets stored in the herbivore’s body that ate the plant. What happens to the other ninety percent of the energy? Explain.

21. Every time energy is transferred from one organism to another, there is a _______________ of energy. This loss of energy can be shown in an energy ______________________.

22. Since there is energy loss in food chains, it takes many ____________________ to support just a few carnivores.

23. Each step of the food chain in the energy pyramid is called a _______________ __________________.

24. Describe the types of organisms found at each trophic level.

25. Due to the high rate of energy loss in food chains, there are usually only ___________ or _______________ trophic levels in the food chain or energy pyramid.