Summary#3 : Food Chains and Food Webs

The energy in an ecosystem comes from the Sun . They must have it to move, to breathe, to keeptheir hearts beating, and to stay alive. The energy of the Sun is stored in food. On the prairie the frist organisms in a food chain are plants.  Plants capture the Sun's energy during photosynthesis. This energy is store in the foods the plant makes fo itself.

How Energy Is Passed On

Some of the energy is released for the plant eater to use . Some of the energy is also stored in its tissues . Some is lost as heat . The hawk is one of the organisms at the top of the foods chain. They become food for small organisms like crickets, worms, and ants. They ae also a food source for microscopic organisms like bacteria .

Producers
The producers on land include grasses, trees, and all other organisms that use the Sun's energy to make their own food. In the oceans the main producers ae algae.

Eating Producers
Comsumers get energy from the food made by other organisms.Consumers can be gouped according to the type of food they eat. HERBIVORES eat producers . Both earth's land and water swarm with herbivores-animals that eat plants, algae  and other producers.

Eating Herbivores
Herbivore, in turn, are eaten  by carnivores. All cats, big and small, are carnivores.  So re dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes and other sharp-toothed animals.  The sea also has carnivores. The most frightening of these is the great white shark.

Predator
Living thing that hunt otherb living things for food are predador.  The hubted ae called prey.  The relationships between predators and prey are a key part of both food chains and food webs.  Some animals eat meat but don't hut it.  They are scavengers.   When animals eats both anaimals amd plants, it is an omnivore-

What happens when Niches Overlap?
When two species are very similar, their niches  may overlap.  Sometimes the competition causes a poùlation to change its niche.  It had to find anothe habitat.

How is Energy moved in acommunity?

All the orgamism need energy to live.  Producers get nergy from the Sun,  Consumers get it from the foods thet eat

What happens to the energy?

An energy pyramid  that less and less food and energy is available as you go from the base to the top of thr pyramid.

What happens when there is a red tide?

The dinoflagellates are tiny algae are producers at the bottom of the ocean food chain.  They are a part of every ocean food web. They also pass up poisons.   People are also affected by ed tide.  A person who eats poisoned shellfish can  become very sick.