Most energy used in ecosystems originates as solar energy.

Green plants convert energy to chemical energy, which is then converted to heat or kinetic energy by the animal that eats the plant.

Organisms in the environment are organized into various different levels, often in complicated, intricate, and interesting ways. The 1st level is an individual organism. The next level is that of populations, a group of organisms of the same species considered together. A biological community is an assemblage of organisms that are related to each other in various ways and usually live in the same area. An ecosystem expands the concept of communities to include the cycling of the matter and E within a system. (The word "ecosystem” combines the words "ecology” and "system.”) The biosphere includes all living organisms and their physical environment.

Food chain -The sequence of organisms through which E & matter are transferred, in the form of food, from one trophic level to another.

Food chains and food webs describe the eating relationships between species in an ecosystem

Trophic level—each level in a food chain

Herbivores - o rganisms that eat only plants;

Carnivores -organisms that eat only animals;

Omnivores -organisms that eat both plants and animals.

Detritivore s: consume organic matter such as animal carcasses, leaf litter, feces (detritus): snails, crabs, clams, worms, termites, beetles, snails

Decomposer: Fungus or bacterium that breaks dead organic material into smaller molecules and uses some of the product for E. Some of the material goes back into the Earth.

Food web A complex, interlocking series of individual food chains in an ecosystem.

Chipmunk – бурундук

Blackbird - чёрный дрозд

Robin – малиновка

woodpecker – дятел

Hawk – ястреб

Bluebird - cиняя птичка счастья

Trophic level—each level or “link” in a food chain

Detritivores: consume organic matter such as animal carcasses, leaf litter, feces (detritus). Snails, crabs, clams, worms, termites, beetles, snails

Decomposers: microbial heterotrophs that break down dead organic material and use some of the product for energy. Some of the material also goes back into the Earth

scavenger - уборщик мусора, всеядное животное

At each step, or trophic level, in the food chain, E is transferred from one organism to another, and is not completely recycled and not completely utilized. Most of the energy transferred at each trophic level is dispersed into the environment as heat, a form of energy that can't be recovered or reused.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-01