Flow of energy in ecosystems

1. Flow of energy in ecosystems Food Chains & Food Webs

2. Turn and talk to a partner. • How do you get your energy? • From where does that energy come? • Why do you need energy?

3. Photosynthesis • Plants use the sun’s energy to make their own food – turning light energy into chemical energy. • The food that plants make is a form of sugar. • When we eat, we can trace the path of energy back to the sun knowing we get our energy from the sugar the plant made using sunlight. Sugar is created in the plant.

4. All living things need energy • Living things use energy to carry out basic life processes, such as movement and growth.

5. Producers, consumers, and decomposers

6. Producers • Producers are organisms that produce their own energy from sunlight. • Producers turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into food in the form of a sugar. • Plants are producers.

7. COnsumers • Consumers are organisms that eat other organisms for energy. • Consumers may eat producers or other consumers. • Animals are consumers.

8. Consumers can be categorized by what they eat as herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. • Herbivores are consumers that only eat producers. • Carnivores are consumers that only eat other consumers. • Omnivores are consumers that eat both producers and consumers.

9. Decomposers • Decomposers are organisms that break down dead organisms and their wastes into smaller and simpler forms of matter, such as nutrients, carbon dioxide, water, and organic matter that all become part of soil, air, and water. • Decomposers include fungi, bacteria, and some invertebrates like worms.

10. Decomposition • Decomposition involves physical and chemical changes. • Breaking matter down into smaller parts is a physical change, like ripping up a piece of paper. • Breaking matter down into simpler parts is a chemical change, like burning a piece of paper. • Through decomposition, organic matter is changed into different, simpler substances.

11. What about Scavengers? • Scavengers are animals that feed on dead animals and plants. • Scavengers eat dead organisms but don’t break them into smaller and simpler pieces. • They do help with decomposition by leaving behind smaller pieces of the dead organism, but scavengers don’t break it into simpler parts.

12. Flow of Energy • Decomposers Consumers Producers Sun Nutrients, Water, Carbon Dioxide

13. Food Chains • A food chain shows the flow of energy between a producer, consumers, and a decomposer. consumer producer consumer decomposer

14. Food Chains • Why do the arrows point from producer to consumer to decomposer? • What do the arrows show us? consumer producer consumer decomposer

15. Food Chains • The source of all energy in a food chain is the sun. • The energy flows from the sun to the producers to the consumers to the decomposers. consumer producer consumer decomposer sun

16. Food webs decomposer producers consumers consumers

17. Food webs sun producers consumers decomposer consumers

18. decomposer Food webs consumers producers sun

19. Food webs decomposer consumers consumers producers sun

20. Food webs grasshopper dandelions fox sun blackberries worm squirrel hawk acorns raccoon producers consumers decomposer consumers

21. Food Chain Food Web