leaves and twigs of tall shrubs, and

aquatic plants like water lilies.

A visit toa taiga forest is dominated by a lush

population of producers, trees, shrubs, grasses,
and mosses.

A small herd of moose can be seen organisms. The producer trophic level
oMp ME

munching on the greenery. Lurking in the always has the largest biomass. The
eR ae

shadows, a lone bear is looking for its next next-largest amount of biomass is the
SM

meal. primary consumers. These consumers eat

erie
ep

Different organisms play different roles in producers. The primary consumers are eaten
an ecosystem. These roles are called trophic by secondary consumers. This trophic
levels. Trophic levels are feeding levels. The level has little biomass, because there are
trophic level at the base of the ecosystem is fewer secondary consumers than primary
the producers. consumers. The secondary consumers are
Trophic levels can be compared by their eaten by tertiary consumers, which are
biomass. Biomass is the mass of matter even fewer. Each tropic level has less biomass
produced by organisms in the ecosystem. than the level below it.
Biomass includes all the dead and living

STRELA
The purple lupines, grasses, and trees shown here are the base of the diagrammed food web.
Directly or indirectly, all of the other organisms depend on them for energy.

Food Webs organism that eats it. It points in the

=
ob. ahh

direction that the energy in the food goes.

A typical ecosystem has producers, ;
When a fox eats a chipmunk, the food energy
consumers, and decomposers. Decomposers ; ; .
. . in the chipmunk goes into the fox. The arrow
consume dead organisms and other biomass. ; ;
A

points from the chipmunk to the fox.

WR

All types of organisms transfer food energy A food web i i

ood web is a more accurate
in a food web. A food web is a model of the ; . ; ,
A

. representation of the feeding relationships in

flow of energy and matter in an ecosystem.
ALA

. . . an ecosystem. It rarely occurs that there is a

It shows all the feeding relationships. It also . ;
; . ; one-to-one relationship between a predator
AB A

points out that some organisms must die to ,

. and prey. Most consumers eat a variety
A Nr

support other organisms.

. of food organisms. Many consumers ma
8

The arrows in a food web connect 6 y y

compete for the same food source.
organisms that eat other organisms. The
arrow points from an organism to the
 a
Ta
Vole Chipmunk

Nt
Lupine Grass
t
Pine tree

A food web shows the overlapping feeding

relationships in an ecosystem.

Arranging organisms by trophic level

helps show community interactions. In this el ae |
food-web diagram, lupines, grass, and pine | Look in your notebook for a food web
trees are producers. Gophers, voles, and | that you made in class. How could you
chipmunks are primary consumers. They are draw the food web to show the relative
herbivores, because they eat only plants. amounts of biomass of producers and |
Barn owls, coyotes, and foxes are secondary consumers?
_consumers. Secondary and tertiary consumers
are Carnivores, or meat eaters. They eat
other animals. Some animals, including most
humans, eat both producers and consumers.
We are omnivores.

Ifvestication.Oe cola aie ares 77)

Energy Transfer Most energy enters the ecosystem as light

a
from the Sun. It transfers to one or more
What happens to the food made or eaten

od
organisms, and exits to the environment as
by an organism? Much of the available

A
thermal energy, commonly called body heat.

AAA
energy maintains life functions. Some food
This energy is transferred to the atmosphere,
energy is stored as biomass in the body of

A
hydrosphere, or geosphere. It is not stored

AR ABAD
the organism. Most is used to do work, or
in biomass, and it is not eaten by the next
passes back into the environment as thermal
trophic level. Only a small part of the food

AD A
energy. So the energy needed to run, think,

i it eR
iB A
energy consumed at a trophic level is retained
digest, pump blood, and perform all other life
as biomass. Sometimes it is as low as
activities passes through the organism and
into the environment. 10 percent.

RA

Scorpions are secondary consumers—

carnivores—preying on insects,
spiders, and even other scorpions.
They can go up to a year without
_ eating anything!
 Consumers have to eat a lot just to reproduction. This energy is usually much
maintain their body mass and functions. less than the energy available in what
The biomass of producers in an ecosystem organisms eat. That means the prey usually
is always much larger than the biomass of outnumber predators. For the same reason,
primary consumers. And the biomass of there are usually fewer herbivores than
primary consumers is much larger than the plants. So trophic-level diagrams are often
biomass of secondary consumers. pyramids.

Trophic Pyramids
At each trophic level, energy transfers
to new biomass through growth and
 We arrange the ecosystem roles from sea lion, which ate a salmon, which ate an
producers, to primary consumers, to anchovy, which ate zooplankton, which ate
secondary consumers, and so on. The result a single-celled alga. And then the great white
is a layered diagram of the ecosystem. shark eats the orca... You get the idea.
Each layer is smaller as you go up the Animals that feed at several trophic levels
trophic levels. Each level of the trophic are generalists. They should be represented in
pyramid has less biomass than the one each trophic level where they play a role.
below it.
Where do we place the decomposers in the
trophic pyramid? They interact with all the
other trophic levels, so they are often placed i
Raccoons and crayfish both eat plant
along the side.
material, which makes them primary
It is extremely rare for an ecosystem
consumers. But they also eat insects |
to have fourth-level consumers. So much
and other animals, which makes them
energy is used or lost to the environment
secondary or tertiary consumers. Where |
before each transfer that it is nearly gone
would you place them in a trophic |
after the third level. Fourth-level (and
pyramid?
higher) consumers usually live in aquatic or
marine ecosystems. An orca, for example, is
a fifth-level consumer. An orca might eat a

Trophic Pyramid

Tertiary-consumer trophic level

Secondary-consumer trophic level

Primary-consumer trophic level

Producer trophic level

The amount of energy and matter moving through a food chain is represented
by a pyramid.It.
mapa

takes many organisms at the base to support just a few organisms at the top.

(80)
 One Possible Food Chain

Zooplankton

Sea lion

"All food chains begin with producers, here algae, which use energy from the Sun to make their own
food. A food chain with this
many consumer levels is more common in aquatic ecosystems than
terrestrial.

Pulling It All Together Every organism needs a constant supply of

een

Living organisms are complex. Their matter and energy. Autotrophs (producers)
bodies are made of matter. The functions of get matter and energy from raw materials in
MN ec

living organisms are driven by energy. The the environment. Heterotrophs (consumers)
energy for life comes from the Sun, captured get matter and energy by eating other
in energy-rich molecules. The energy-rich organisms. Feeding relationships move matter
molecules when consumed or used are called and energy through the trophic levels in an
IRE

food. ecosystem.
EE
 A
RO
yh a oH
sii ket
As in all ecosystems, their producers
Globally, forests cover about one-third of Earth’s land surface.
make up the lowest trophic level and have the greatest biomass.

Dead organisms still have valuable matter

8
i

and energy. Decomposers get the last bit of

ae
ey

energy out of this organic material. They 1. One model of an ecosystem is a

A oR

reduce the material to simple chemicals. trophic pyramid. Explain why the
iA

Matter enters the ecosystem as food made bottom layer of a trophic pyramid is
by producers. It returns to the environment the biggest, and the top layer is the
AB

to be used again by living organisms. Matter

A:

smallest.

recycles again and again. But energy passes

0 a i

2. Why doesn’t 100 percent of the

through the ecosystem only once. Almost all energy pass from trophic level to
A RB

trophic level?
Sb

the energy that passes through the ecosystem

radiates into the environment as thermal
A A

energy. Once transferred to the environment,

1

it is no longer useful as food energy.

ee