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\( \newcommand\) • • • • Learning Objectives • Illustrate the transfer of energy between trophic levels Large amounts of energy are lost from the ecosystem between one trophic level and the next level as energy flows from the primary producers through the various trophic levels of consumers and decomposers. The main reason for this loss is the second law of thermodynamics, which states that whenever energy is converted from one form to another, there is a tendency toward disorder (entropy) in the system. In biologic systems, this means a great deal of energy is lost as metabolic heat when the organisms from one trophic level are consumed by the next level. The measurement of energy transfer efficiency between two successive trophic levels is termed the trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) and is defined by the formula: TLTE=productionatpresenttrophiclevelproductionatprevioustrophiclevelx100TLTE=productionatpresenttrophiclevelproductionatprevioustrophiclevelx100 In Silver Springs, the TLTE between the first two trophic levels was approximately 14.8 percent. The low efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels is usually the major factor that limits the length of food chains observed in a food web. The fact is, after four to six energy transfers, there is not enough energy left to support another trophic level. In the Lake Ontario ecosystem food web, only three energy transfers occurred between the primary producer (green algae) and the tertiary, or apex, consume...

\( \newcommand\) • • • • • Consequences of Food Webs: Biological Magnification One of the most important environmental consequences of ecosystem dynamics is biomagnification: the increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the apex consumers. Many substances have been shown to bioaccumulate, including classical studies with the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), which was published in the 1960s bestseller, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. DDT was a commonly-used pesticide before its dangers became known. In some aquatic ecosystems, organisms from each trophic level consumed many organisms of the lower level, which caused DDT to increase in birds (apex consumers) that ate fish. Thus, the birds accumulated sufficient amounts of DDT to cause fragility in their eggshells. This effect increased egg breakage during nesting, which was shown to have adverse effects on these bird populations. The use of DDT was banned in the United States in the 1970s. Other substances that biomagnify are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were used in coolant liquids in the United States until their use was banned in 1979, and heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, and cadmium. These substances were best studied in aquatic ecosystems where fish species at different trophic levels accumulate toxic substances brought through the ecosystem by the primary producers. In a study performed by the National Ocea...

One of the things that I think is really interesting is that we really have a very polarized ideology, or a polarized position, in the U.S. on what we should consume. We have a lot of people who have a vegetarian ideology, a vegan ideology, a vegan ideology who really don’t eat anything. Then you have a lot of people who have a carnivorous feeding ideology, a carnivorous feeding ideology who really don’t eat anything. And those two ideologies are just completely opposed to each other. The grasslands are the world’s largest biome and home to cattle, horses, sheep and goats, camels and other animals that live on the land. These animals graze and eat grasses and other plants that grow in the grasslands. I believe that the grasslands are the foodiest of all biomes. The grasslands are a big, big place. It’s the home of the plains people, the nomads, the cowboys and the settlers. The grasslands are the birthplace of the cattle and the buffalo, and the home of the cowboy and the farmer. The grasslands is where the cattle and the buffalo roam and the grass and the plants and the wind and the sun and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the stars and the moon and the Grasshoppers and prairie dogs are the primary eaters in temp...

Focus Question How do organisms depend on one another? What is a food chain, what is a food web and how do they relate to one another? Activity Synopsis The students will use organism cards to build a pond food chain. They will learn the name of each organism’s role in the food chain (producer, consumer, apex consumer, and decomposer). They will then take those food chains and build an interconnected pond food web to see the complex relationships between organisms in the habitat. Objectives The learner will be able to: • Describe a pond habitat. • Explain that the energy in a food chain comes from an energy source which is most often the sun. • Define the terms producer, consumer, apex consumer, and decomposer. • Build food chains with organism cards and identify roles in the food chain – producer, consumer, apex consumer, and decomposer. • Draw a food chain diagram with arrows that shows how energy is passed in a food chain. • Make an interconnected food web. • Understand the impact of one organism on another in a food web. Download Activity * Links on PDF are not live. Go to activity online to access materials. South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Science Standards 2021 3 rd Grade: 3-LS3-2, 3-LS4-3, 3-LS4-4 4 th Grade: 4-LS1-1 5 th Grade: 5-PS3-1, 5-LS1-1, 5-LS2-1 * Bold standards are the main standards addressed in this activity 2014 Academic Standards and Performance Indicators for Science 3rd Grade: 3.S.1A.6, 3.S.1A.8, 3.L.5A.1, 3.L.5A.2, 3.L.5B.1, 3.L.5B.2 4th Gr...

A food chain shows the feeding relationship between organisms. They always start with an organism that makes food. The producer. In this example, it's grass. The first consumer in the chain, in this case the grasshopper, is also called the primary consumer. A consumer that only eats plants is called a herbivore. The frog is the secondary consumer. Because it only eats other animals, it's called a carnivore. The hawk is the tertiary consumer and, in this chain, the term given to the organism found at the top of a food chain, which is not preyed upon. It is important to remember that the arrows in food chains show the flow of energy from one organism to another. On planet Earth, there are many different food chains that often overlap and interconnect, that play their part in the world's ecosystems. Food chains always start with a producer. This is usually a green plant or algae that completes photosynthesis to store energy from sunlight as glucose. Grass is the producer in the grass → rabbit → fox food chain. Photosynthesis provides the energy for most life on Earth. A primary consumer eats a producer. The rabbit is the primary consumer in the example food chain. This is in turn eaten by a secondary consumer, which is the fox. After this might be a tertiary consumer (which eats a secondary consumer) and possibly a quaternary consumer (which eats a tertiary consumer), but not in this example. Animals that are hunted and eaten are prey, and these are consumed by predators. The...

\( \newcommand\) • • • • • • • • Virtually every task performed by living organisms requires energy. In general, energy is defined as the ability to do work, or to create some kind of change. Energy exists in different forms. Examples includelight energy, kinetic energy,heat energy, potential energy, and chemical energy.Energy is required by most complex metabolic pathways (often in the form of adenosine triphosphate, ATP), especially those responsible for building large molecules from smaller compounds, and life itself is an energy-driven process. Living organisms would not be able to assemble macromolecules (proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and complex carbohydrates) from their monomeric subunits without a constant energy input. It is important to understand how organisms acquire energy and how that energy is passed from one organism to another through trophic interactions. Trophic interactions in a community can be represented by diagrams called food chainsand food webs. Food webs illustrate how energy flows directionally through ecosystems, including how efficiently organisms acquire it, use it, and how much remains for use by other organisms of the food web. How Organisms Acquire Energy in a Food Web Energy is acquired by living things in three ways: photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, and the consumption and digestion of other living or previously living organisms by heterotrophs. Photosynthetic and chemosynthetic organisms are both grouped into a category known as autot...

Primary Consumer Definition A primary consumer is an organism that feeds on primary producers. Organisms of this type make up the second trophic level and are consumed or predated by secondary consumers, tertiary consumers or apex predators. Trophic levels Primary consumers are usually herbivores that feed on autotrophic plants, which produce their own food through photosynthesis. Several other feeding strategies are also used by primary consumers: algivores feed on photosynthetic algae; frugivores feed on the fruiting bodies of plants; nectarivores feed on plant nectar; folivores feed on leaf material; granivores feed on grains and seeds while fungivores feed on heterotrophic fungi such as mushrooms. Many primary consumers adopt several different feeding strategies in order to maximize the effectiveness of foraging behavior. Primary consumers often have specific physiological adaptions that allow them to process the carbohydrates produced through photosynthesis, which can be hard to break down and extract nutrition from; herbivores often have rows of wide, flat teeth are used to rasp, grind and tear tough plant material and woody stems. Many primary consumers also have symbiotic bacteria, which live within a special organ called the cecum and assist with the digestion of plant material. Primary consumers exist in all biomes and fill a wide variety of niches. They can range from microscopic organisms such as zooplankton to animals as big as elephants. Examples of Primary C...

"Wait Mama! We forgot one," cried Quinen. " We forgot the "You're right we did," said Mama. "Then after that it starts all over again?" asked Katje. "Yes my little one," said Mama. "It will start all over again. Just like how tomorrow will be a new day. "Goodnight Mama," whispered the kittens as they drifted off into a wonderous sleep.