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Understanding the Food Chain Dynamics

A food chain shows how energy flows from one organism to another as they eat and are eaten. The sun provides energy that plants capture through photosynthesis, and then herbivores obtain energy by eating plants. Carnivores and omnivores obtain energy by consuming herbivores or other carnivores. Each time an organism eats another and transfers its energy, less total energy remains available as some is lost. Organisms interact through competing for food, eating each other, and avoiding being eaten as they pass energy through the food chain.

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16 views10 pages

Understanding the Food Chain Dynamics

A food chain shows how energy flows from one organism to another as they eat and are eaten. The sun provides energy that plants capture through photosynthesis, and then herbivores obtain energy by eating plants. Carnivores and omnivores obtain energy by consuming herbivores or other carnivores. Each time an organism eats another and transfers its energy, less total energy remains available as some is lost. Organisms interact through competing for food, eating each other, and avoiding being eaten as they pass energy through the food chain.

Uploaded by

hessmr
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The Food Chain

Food Chain

A food chain does more than show

who eats whom. Eating is how an animal gets energy. A food chain charts this flow of energy through the system.

Sun
The provides the energy for everything on the planet

and is where every food chain begins

Energy
In a food chain energy is passed from one

organism to the next. The further along the food chain you go, the less food (and energy) remains available When a rabbit eats a carrot, the rabbit gets energy from the carrot. When a hawk eats that rabbit, the hawk gets some of the energy from the rabbit and some from the carrot that was eaten by the rabbit.

Interact
Organisms interact all of the time. Most

of the interactions between species involve food: Competing for the same food supply Eating Avoid being eaten

Producers
Plants (producers) use photosynthesis to use the

energy from the sun to nourish themselves.

Consumers
Everything else in the food chain is considered a

consumer. Some animals (primary consumers) eat the plants. Some animals eat plant-eating animals (secondary consumers). Their predators are called tertiary consumers. The further away from the producers in the food chain, the less energy is obtained from the sun.

Predator
A plant or animal that preys on other animals for

food. A nasty beast, we must say. Examples of predators include polar bears, tigers, walruses, the venus flytrap and many, many more.

Prey
The unlucky organism who gets eaten by the

predator. They prey of a polar bear, for example, includes seals, walruses, small whales and others.

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