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Explore the intricacies of energy transfer in food chains and webs, including predator-prey relationships. Learn how energy is lost as it moves through trophic levels, impacting ecosystem efficiency and biomass distribution.
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More Beginning Ecology Energy Relationships
Energy Transfer • Food Chain: shows the pathway of energy through simple sequence of one organism eating another
Predator/Prey • Predator: an animal that eats another animal • Prey: the animal that gets eaten
Food Webs • Food Web: interconnected food chains • List producers • List 1st level consumers • List 2nd level consumers • List 3rd level consumers • What is missing?
Not 100% Efficient • Energy is lost as it is transferred between each link in a food chain because: • a. Organism uses most of the energy they consume for their own life processes • b. Some is lost as heat
Only 10% of the energy in a lower level is available to the next trophic level up.
Numbers Decrease • Because the total amount of energy available decreases with each higher trophic level, the total mass of organisms that can be supported at each level also decreases. • Biomass: the total dry weight of living organisms at each trophic level • Greatest amount of biomass at the producer level.