Energy Flow In Food Webs

Each step in a food chain is a “trophic level” because of the energy transfer between them which can be shown in energy pyramids. All of the energy that passes on originally comes from the sun before moving through the order of the trophic levels, which is from producers to primary consumers to secondary consumers, then eventually to tertiary consumers. Although, as one lifeform eats another for energy, only 10% transfers to the next level because that 90% is used to “carry out the functions of living, such as producing new cells, regulating body temperature, and moving,” or for other necessary tasks. These transfers through eating are important since they help maintain ecosystems like the Everglades Hardwood Hammock. (Arms,

The Carbon Cycle is a process necessary to all life forms as carbon is used for photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and is found in all living organisms. This process occurs naturally from cellular respiration, decomposition, and volcanic eruptions. However from burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees at a rapid pace carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere at an artificial rate. The overabundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing for global warming. This global warming is causing extreme havoc to the Earth and all of its life forms. However this damage, although cannot be reversed, can be changed for the better.

Because of this, the animals in that ecosystem are able to thrive. Hannibal's main points in these paragraphs point out that there is a specific job for each animal in the food chain which has a direct effect on its ecosystem if something changes.

As the energy moves through the system, nutrients also travel through the levels of the food chain through the predator prey feeding cycle active in the food chain. To summarize the nutrients are cycled through the food web and the energy is not.

Activity 2: Everything is connected One advantage of food webs is that it shows the interconnectedness of organisms in an ecosystem. In fact, removing one organism from a complex food web can have drastic effects on everything above and below it. Use your constructed food web to complete the following activity and answer the following questions. (6 points) 1) Shuffle up your cards and randomly select one card.

Photosynthesis is the procedure in which green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make food and oxygen and cellular respiration is the process where cells use this food to

Organisms are complex and use energy to function, grow, and reproduce. Organisms get this energy from photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants harness sunlight to make glucose from carbon dioxide and water1. Photosynthesis provides glucose for cellular respiration. Glucose is the reactant for cellular respiration. Cellular respiration has complex stages, where the glucose molecule is slowly broken down. The formula for cellular respiration is C6H12O6 + 6O2 ⇢ 6CO2 + 6H2O + energy.

The carbon cycle deals with the interaction of carbon between living organisms and the nonliving environment. This cycle is a process through which all carbon rotates. The main result of the carbon cycle is to serve as a great natural "recycler" of carbon atoms.

Photosynthesis occurs in all green plants and is the beginning of nearly all food chains therefore a source of life to all living organisms. It is the process where plants transform light energy from the sun into chemical energy. By using light energy trapped by chlorophyll (light absorbing pigment), plants combine carbon dioxide and water to form glucose and oxygen.

The Carbon Cycle is an important key to maintaining all the life on earth alive. The Carbon Cycle happens between all living things, so they all play a major role in it. It is the second most abundant element that makes up living things. Carbon affects the atmosphere throughout the years because the carbon has to travel to and from the living things.

The threats to the Food Pyramids are overhunting animals which can lead to inversion of the pyramids where the trophic level either

As a set of interacting species found in the same place and functioning together, this enabling life to persist. That is essentially the definition we used earlier. A problem with this term and definition is that it is often difficult in practice to know the entire set of interacting species. A resource, in ecological terms, is something such as food, water, habitat, and sunlight, prey that is required by an organism to perform a vital function such as grow or reproduce. A consumer is an organism that consumes a resource such as predators and herbivores (Botkin, 2015). Ecosystems are collections of plants, animals, and micro-organisms interacting among themselves and with their habitat. While most ecosystems are hard to define and draw rigid boundaries around, scientists characterize them by their rock and soil types, by water features such as streams and ponds, and by the common plant and animal species which make their homes within these areas. This, most interactions between animals involve one or more competitor species competing for a resource. Ecosystem management also recognizes the influence of natural disturbances such as fire and windstorms, accepting that natural ecosystems are dynamic and change over time. Biological production is the capture of usable energy from the environment to produce

For all living organisms including plants, respiration is the process of converting chemical energy into a usable form of energy (Biol 171L Lab 7). Even if an organism does not have an energy source, they will keep respiring. For autotrophic plants, the process of obtaining energy is called photosynthesis. It harvests solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water to form a usable form of energy (Tanaka 2009). The factors that go into this process includes the pigment the plant possesses, and the intensity, wavelength, and direction of the light. Plants that contain the pigment chlorophyll-a are the ones we see as the leaves of common trees, or grass.

     Plants absorb energy from the sunlight whether on land or in the water. The energy is transferred to humans and some animals that eat plants. Some animals are not able to eat plants so they eat other animals who has energy stored up in them. Humans also receive a source of energy from animals that we eat. What is quite amazing is that maggots receive energy from animals that have been dead for a long period of time.

This means that humans not only need plants for eating, but also need their created oxygen to break the food down efficiently.