CONCEPTS EXPLORED IN THIS LESSON

1) Introduction to Food Chains

2) Food Chains
3) Humans and Food Chains
4) Food Webs
5) Trophic Levels
6) Ecological Pyramids
INTRODUCTION TO FOOD CHAINS
which
Food Chain: is a sequence of feeding relationships describing ______
organism eats another
___________________.
source of energy for
Sun is the ______________
The ____
food chains.
eagle
Keep in mind that the
arrow tip always points
snake towards the “eater”.
eater
frog

grass-
hopper

grass food
INTRODUCTION TO FOOD CHAINS
Label and write descriptions
on your food chain diagram.

eagle
cannot make
Since they _______
their own food, they must
consume other
eat or “________” snake
organisms.

frog
basis of all
They form the _____
terrestrial
________ food chains.
grass-
They use the energy in hopper
sunlight
_______ to make their
own food through a process
grass
photosynthesis
called _____________.
FOOD CHAINS Top carnivore: any organism that is
There are different __________ top
not hunted by any other. It’s at the ___
levels of consumers….. of its food chain.

eagle quaternary consumer

The ___
4th consumer in a food chain.
It eats tertiary
________________.
consumers
snake tertiary consumer
The 3rd
___ consumer in a food chain.
It eats secondary consumers
__________________.
frog secondary consumer
The 2nd
___ consumer in a food chain.
It eats primary
________________.
consumers
grass-
primary consumer
hopper 1st consumer in a food chain.
The ___
producers
It eats _________.
grass
 All organisms eventually die and decompose.
FOOD CHAINS

eagle Detritus: is the waste

___________
matter
of living organisms and the
remains of dead organisms.
_______
snake

Decomposers: are
frog eat
detritus organisms that ___
detritus and break
_______
grass- it down into
hopper nutrients
________.
decomposers
grass
Nutrients: are substances
needed for an organism’s
The cycle restarts. nutrients ______
growth and _____.
repair
FOOD CHAINS Food chains can occur in aquatic
_______ ecosystems.
top carnivore
killer whale
Marine food chains
start with microscopic
shark
aquatic organisms called
phytoplankton that can
larger fish perform photosynthesis
_____________
_____________
to make their own food.

small fish

zooplankton

phytoplankton
FOOD CHAINS Food chains can occur in aquatic
_______ ecosystems.

Though most aquatic food chains

start off with photosynthetic
phytoplankton that get their
energy from the sun, there are
exceptions.
In the 1970s, scientists discovered
deep sea _________________
hydrothermal vents in
the ocean which were too deep
sunlight to reach.
for _______
Here they found new types of
Hydrothermal Vent bacteria that could generate
_______
sulfides found in
energy using the _______
How could a food
the vents.
chain start without sunlight
and photosynthesis?
FOOD CHAINS Food chains can occur in aquatic
_______ ecosystems.

Though most aquatic food chains

start off with photosynthetic
phytoplankton that get their
energy from the sun, there are
exceptions.
In the 1970s, scientists discovered
deep sea _________________
hydrothermal vents in
the ocean which were too deep
sunlight to reach.
for _______
Chemoautotrophic Bacteria Here they found new types of
in Hydrothermal Vents bacteria that could generate
_______
sulfides found in
energy using the _______
How could a food
the vents. They didn’t need the
chain start without sunlight
sun for energy.
___
and photosynthesis?
FOOD CHAINS Food chains can occur in aquatic
_______ ecosystems.

Bacteria in these vents form the

basis of vent food chains in the octopus
same way as phytoplankton and secondary
plants do in other ecosystems. consumer

crab
primary
consumer

chemo-
autotrophic
bacteria
producer
Hydrothermal Vent Organisms
HUMANS AND FOOD CHAINS
Since humans are not hunted for food by any other animal,
and since humans eat almost anything, (well maybe not this)
this makes us
top carnivores
____________.

Where are
humans on any
food chain?
?
Count how
many of these
animals
you’ve eaten
in your life.
HUMANS AND FOOD CHAINS
Have you ever eaten one of these? What food chains did you
What is it made of? participate in when you ate this?

wheat tomato beef

cheese onion

lettuce
HUMANS AND FOOD CHAINS

human human human human human

Humans are mainly _______

primary consumers
because we eat a lot of plants
_____. When we eat
animals, they are usually herbivores
_________ , so this
makes us also secondary
_________ consumers. cow

wheat lettuce onion tomato grass

FOOD WEBS

No ecosystem is only
made up of only one
food chain.

Members of one food

chain usually also
belong to another.

When you put all the

interconnecting food
_____________
chains in an ecosystem
together, you form a
food web
________.
TROPHIC LEVELS
Trophic Level: It is the _______
position an organism occupies in a food chain.
Each link
___ in the chain represents one trophic level.

eagle shark
On land, the first
trophic level begins
snake plants
with ______. larger fish

In the water, the

frog first trophic level small fish
begins with
grass- phytoplankton
_____________.
zooplankton
hopper

grass phytoplankton
TROPHIC LEVELS
Trophic Level: It is the _______
position an organism occupies in a food chain.
Each link
___ in the chain represents one trophic level.

eagle 5th trophic level shark

snake 4th trophic level larger fish

frog 3rd trophic level small fish

grass-
2nd trophic level zooplankton
hopper

grass 1st trophic level phytoplankton

TROPHIC LEVELS
As organisms eat one another,
energy is transferred up the food
______
chain.
eagle 0.1 kcal However, as energy is moved from
- 0.9 kcal one trophic level to the next, only
10 % of the energy makes it to
___
snake 1 kcal the next level.
- 9 kcal
This 10 % is used to build biomass
_______
frog 10 kcal bodily functions
as well as to fuel ______________.
- 90 kcal
grass- 90 of the
This means that ___%
100 kcal energy is lost, mostly in the form
hopper
- 900 kcal detritus and as heat
of _______ ____ from
metabolic processes.
grass 1000 kcal
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.
Total energy
1) Pyramid of Energy: present in
tertiary
This pyramid indicates consumers.
the amount of ______
energy Total energy
that is present in each present in
trophic level. secondary
consumers.
The amount of energy
Total energy present in
decreases as you
always _________ primary consumers.
move up trophic levels.

Total energy present in producers.

ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.

1) Pyramid of Energy:
This pyramid indicates
the amount of ______
energy
that is present in each
trophic level.
The amount of energy
decreases as you
always _________
move up trophic levels.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.

2) Pyramid of Biomass: Total biomass

present in
This pyramid indicates the tertiary
amount of biomass
_______ that is consumers.
present in each trophic Total biomass
present in
level, in a given area. secondary
consumers.
Biomass is the amount of
dry matter (without
_________ Total biomass present
water) within organisms. in primary consumers.
On land, the amount of
decreases as
biomass _________
Total biomass present in producers.
you move up trophic
levels.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.

2) Pyramid of Biomass:
This pyramid indicates the
amount of biomass
_______ that is
present in each trophic
level, in a given area.
Biomass is the amount of
dry matter (without
_________
water) within organisms.
On land, the amount of
decreases as
biomass _________
you move up trophic
levels.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.

2) Pyramid of Biomass:
Total biomass present in
In the water, the amount tertiary consumers.
of biomass increases
________ as
you move up trophic Total biomass present in
levels, creating an secondary consumers.
inverted
_______ pyramid.
This is only possible Total biomass present
in primary consumers.
because the reproductive
rate of the organisms
increases as you go down
________ Total biomass
present in
trophic levels. phytoplankton.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.

2) Pyramid of Biomass:

In the water, the amount

of biomass increases
________ as
you move up trophic
levels, creating an
inverted
_______ pyramid.
This is only possible
because the reproductive
rate of the organisms
increases as you go down
________
trophic levels.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.
3) Pyramid of Numbers: Total population
of tertiary
This pyramid indicates the consumers.
_________ of individuals
population
at each trophic level. Total population of
secondary
The typical pyramid of consumers.
decreases as you
numbers _________
move up trophic levels. Total population of
primary consumers.
This occurs when many
_____
small and _________
numerous
producers feed a smaller
______ Total population of producers.
number of consumers.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.
3) Pyramid of Numbers:

This pyramid indicates the

_________ of individuals
population
at each trophic level.
The typical pyramid of
decreases as you
numbers _________
move up trophic levels.
This occurs when many
_____
small and _________
numerous
producers feed a smaller
______
number of consumers.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.
3) Pyramid of Numbers: Total population
of tertiary
However, when the consumers.
producers are ____
large , and
fewer in number than
are _____ Total population of
the primary consumers, secondary
consumers.
the pyramid looks like this.
Total population of
Give an example of the primary consumers.
kind of producers that
would result in this
type of pyramid. Total population
of producers.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Ecological Pyramids: These are diagrams that represent each
trophic level according to its energy
______ , biomass
_______ or population
_________.
3) Pyramid of Numbers:

However, when the

producers are ____
large , and
fewer in number than
are _____
the primary consumers,
the pyramid looks like this.

Give an example of the

kind of producers that
would result in this
type of pyramid.
The End!
 Created by Anh-Thi Tang – Tangstar Science
Copyright © August 2014 Anh-Thi Tang (a.k.a. Tangstar Science)
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