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Energy Flow

  • Two main types of organisms
    • Producers
      • Autotrophs- organisms that use energy from the sun or energy stored in chemical compounds to manufacture food.
    • Consumers
      • Heterotrophs- organism that depend directly or indirectly on autotrophs as their source of nutrients and energy.
        • Herbivores are heterotrophs that eat producers.
        • Carnivores are heterotrophs that eat other heterotrophs.
          • Scavengers- feed on carrion, refuse, and dead organisms.
        • Omnivores are heterotrophs that eat producers and other heterotrophs.
          • Decomposers are organism that break down compounds in dead/decaying plants and animals.

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Energy Flow

  • Food chains are linear steps to show how matter and energy move through an ecosystem by eating or being eaten.
    • Trophic level represents a feeding step in a food chain (each level eats the level before it).
      • Level 1: Producers
      • Level 2: Primary consumer (1st)
      • Level 3: Secondary consumer (2nd)
      • Level 4: Tertiary consumer (3rd)
      • Level 5: Quaternary consumer (4th)
    • ALL ENERGY is passed in ONE DIRECTION!!!!

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Name a carnivore.

Identify an herbivore.

Which is the primary consumer?

Which is a producer?

Which is a secondary consumer?

What trophic level is the otter?

Otter and Trout

Crustaceans

Crustaceans

Plankton

Trout

Fourth

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What level is it?- tree, bear, deer, owl, and fish

1 Tree

2 Bear

3 Deer

4 Owl

5 Trout

Word Bank: 1st level, 2nd level, 3rd level

1st level

2nd/3rd level

2nd level

3rd level

2nd/3rd level

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Energy Flow

  • Food Webs
    • Diagrams ALL of the possible feeding relationships in a community.
      • More complex than a food chain.