Food Chains, Food Webs, and Energy Pyramid Worksheet

1. Using the following food chain, to answer questions a-c below.

Grass Rabbit Fox

Producer
a. What type of organism is the grass? _____________________________
b. Which animal is a herbivore or primary consumer? ___________________________
Rabbit
c. What would happen to the population of rabbits, if the population of foxes increased (got bigger)?
Why?
It would decrease because of overhunting.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

2. Construct a food chain. Label the producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary
consumer.

An owl eats a snake, the snake eats a squirrel, the squirrel ate a nut.

Nut Squirrel Snake Owl

3. Using the food chain from question 2, construct an energy pyramid.

Owl

Snake

Squirrel

Nut
a. Which animal in the energy pyramid you created has the most amount of available energy?
_________________________________________________________________________
Squirrel
b. Which animal in the energy pyramid you created has the least amount of available energy?
_________________________________________________________________________
Owl
4. Use the food web below to answer questions a-f below.

grass
a. What is the producer? __________________________________________
b. What are the primary consumers?
__________________________________________________________________
Mouse, Rabbit and Grass hopper.
c. What are the secondary consumers? __________________________________
Snake and Kookaburra
d. What are the tertiary consumers?
Wedged Tailed Eagle and Kookaburra
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
e. What is the top predator? ___________________________________________
Wedged Tailed Eagle
f. Construct one food chain that you see on the food web.

Grass Grasshopper Snake Wedged Tailed Eagle

5. Using your food chain above, construct an energy pyramid.

Wedged Tailed
Eagle

Snake

Grasshopper

Grass
Food Webs and Food Chains Worksheet

1 Look at this food chain.

lettuce greenfly ladybird thrush cat

energy transferred to
a What does the arrow mean in a food chain?
b Name the producer in the food chain Lettuce
c Name the third trophic level in the food chain. Ladybird
d Name the tertiary consumer in the food chain. Thrush

e What is the ultimate source of energy that drives the food chain? Sun
________

2. Look at these food chains.

grass slug thrush cat

fox cat
grass slug fox

grass rabbit fox

thrush
grass rabbit cat
slug
a Use the food chains to help you fill in the
arrows on this food web. One has been rabbit
added for you. grass

Use the food web to help you answer these questions.

b Name the producer in this food web. Grass
Fox
c Name a consumer in this food web.
d What eats rabbits? Cat and Fox
e What does a fox eat? Slug and Rabbit
3 Look at this food web. Then answer the questions.

fox perch
heron

frog
small fish

slug newt

diving
beetle
water fleas
insect
tiny water
land plants plants

a Name two producers in the food web.

Land plants and tiny water plants

b Name three consumers in the food web.

Fox, Heron and Perch

c Write a food chain from this food web with six trophic levels.
Tiny water plant, Water Fleas, Diving Beetle, Small Fish, Perch and Heron

d Name the animals that the small fish eats.

Water Fleas and Diving Beetle

e Name the animals that eat the small fish.

Heron and Perch

f Explain what could happen to the community if all the frogs suddenly died.

The insects will overpopulate the earth because there will be no frogs to eat them.

4. How are food webs different to food chains? Explain why food webs are more
useful.

Food webs are multiple food chain combined.

Food webs give us insight on different food chains at once
Pyramid of Energy Packet
Every organism needs to obtain energy in order to live. For example, plants get
energy from the sun, some animals eat plants, and some animals eat other
animals.
A food chain is the sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an
ecosystem) to obtain nutrition. A food chain starts with the primary energy
source, usually the sun or boiling-hot deep sea vents. The next link in the chain is
an organism that makes its own food from the primary energy source -- an
example is photosynthetic plants that make their own food from sunlight (using
a process called photosynthesis) and chemosynthetic bacteria that make
their food energy from chemicals in hydrothermal vents. These are called
autotrophs or primary producers.
Next come organisms that eat the autotrophs; these organisms are called
herbivores or primary consumers -- an example is a rabbit that eats grass.
The next link in the chain is animals that eat herbivore - these are called secondary
consumers -- an example is a snake that eats rabbits. In turn, these animals are
eaten by larger predators -- an example is an owl that eats snakes. The tertiary
consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers -- an example is a hawk that
eats owls. Each food chain ends with a top predator and animal with no natural
enemies (like an alligator, hawk, or polar bear).

Food Chain Questions

1. What travels through a food chain or web? Energy
2. What is the ultimate energy for all life on Earth? Sun
3. The 1 st organism in a food chain must always be what type of organism? Producer
4. Where do chemosynthetic bacteria get their energy? Chemicals from hydrothermal vents.
5. Define herbivore. Organisms that eat plants.
Primary Consumers
6. Herbivores are also called _________________________.
7. What are animals called that feed on herbivores?Secondary Consumers
8. Secondary consumers are eaten by larger Predators
_________________________".
Tertiary
9. _________________________"consumers eat secondary consumers.

1
The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy, from the sun or hydrothermal vent to
a top predator. As the energy flows from organism to organism, energy is lost at each
step. A network of many food chains is called a food web.

Trophic Levels:
The trophic level of an organism is the position it holds in a food chain.
1. Primary producers (organisms that make their own food from sunlight and/or
chemical energy from deep sea vents) are the base of every food chain - these
organisms are called autotrophs.
2. Primary consumers are animals that eat primary producers; they are also called
herbivores (plant-eaters).
3. Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. They are carnivores (meat-
eaters) and omnivores (animals that eat both animals and plants).
4. Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers.
5. Quaternary consumers eat tertiary consumers.

Food chains "end" with top predators, animals that have little or no natural enemies. When any organism dies, it is eventually eaten by detrivores (like vultures, worms
and crabs) and broken down by decomposers (mostly bacteria and fungi), and the exchange of energy continues.
Some organisms' position in the food chain can vary as their diet differs. For example, when a bear eats berries, the bear is functioning as a primary
consumer. When a bear eats a plant-eating rodent, the bear is functioning as a secondary consumer. When the bear eats salmon, the bear is functioning as a
tertiary consumer (this is because salmon is a secondary consumer, since salmon eat herring that eat zooplankton that eat phytoplankton, that make their own
energy from sunlight). Think about how people's place in the food chain varies - often within a single meal.

Food Web Questions

1. What is used to indicate the flow of energy in a food chain or web?Arrows
2. What happens to energy as we move from step to step in a chain or web? Gets transfered
autotrophs
_________________________"producers called _________________________".
3. The 1 st trophic level consists of primary
4. Name the 2 nd trophic level (both names). Herbivores and Primary Consumer
Omnivores
5. Secondary consumers may be _________________________
Carnivores eating meat or _________________________that eat both plants and animals.
6. What is the 3 rd trophic level called? Secondary consumers
7. What is the 4 th trophic level called? Tertiary consumers
Quaternary
8. At the 5 th trophic level would be _________________________"consumers that eat _________________________"
Tertiary consumers.
9. What organism feeds on dead plants and animals and helps recycle them?Decomposers
Fungi
10. Both _________________________and _________________________
Bacteria act as decomposers.
2
 Numbers of Organisms
In any food web, energy is lost each time one
organism eats another. Because of this, there have
to be many more plants than there are plant-
eaters. There are more autotrophs than
heterotrophs, and more plant-eaters than meat-eaters.
Each level has about 10% less energy available to it
because some of the energy is lost as heat at
each level. Although there is intense competition
between animals, there is also interdependence. When
one species goes extinct, it can affect an entire chain
of other species and have unpredictable consequences.

1. In food chains and webs, what trophic level

must you have more of than others? Capture & Store energy Release energy from food
Plants
Green plant cells All cells
2. Each trophic level has how much LESS
energy?
Chloroplast Mitochondria
Quaternary consumers
CO2+H20+light Glucose+O2
3. What may happen if a species goes extinct?

It affects an entire food chain Glucose+O2 CO2+H20+ATP

Equilibrium
As the number of carnivores in a community
increases, they eat more and more of the herbivores,
decreasing the herbivore population. It then becomes
harder and harder for the carnivores to find herbivores to
eat, and the population of carnivores decreases. In this
way, the carnivores and herbivores stay in a relatively
stable equilibrium, each limiting the other's
population. A similar equilibrium exists between plants
and plant-eaters.

3
 Energy transferred to Producers

Heterotrophs
energy

Primary Producers Producers

Autotrophs Autotrophs

Herbivores Producer

Primary Consumers Primary consumer

Top predators Secondary Consumers

4
 Hawk

Snake
Raccoon

Rat and Spider

Tiny fish, Bettle larva, Grasshopper

5
Down 1 2 3
C W H A L E S H A R K
1. An animal that eats other animals.
3. Plants need this to produce their own food and energy. 4 U
O A
4. Mice should beware of this predatory bird at night.
6. This carnivorous fish lives in the Amazon. 5 6
W R L I O N P
7. An animal that lives in another plant or animal
7 L
and eats that plant or animals without killing it. P L A N T S I
9. This insectivore has a long tongue and nose, 8
which it uses to lick up ants. A I O M N I V O R E
10. Many food chains linked together.
R G
12. An animal that finds already dead animals to eat. V A
14. An animal that hunts other animals. 9 10
H
A O A F O O D C A I N
15. Many filter feeders in the ocean eat this.
18. Animals get this from eating other animals. S O T
R N H
11 12 13
Across I N S E C T I V O R E B E A R
2. This monster shark is not dangerous to people because
it's a filter feeder. It’s the biggest fish in the sea! T C D
E
5. This predator hunts zebras and antelope. 14 15
7. These are often at the bottom of food chains. E A W P P
A
8. An animal that eats both plants and animals. 16
V U L T U R E
10. Zebra eats grass. Lion eats zebra. What is R L
this an example of? 17 18
A B L U E W H A L E
11. An animal that eats only insects. E
13. This omnivore eats berries in summer and salmon in N R
D N N
the fall.
16. A desert scavenger that can often be seen flying above G A K E
dead animals. 19 20
17. This is the largest animal in the world and it is a filter P R E Y M O S Q U I T O T R
feeder.
19. An animal that is hunted by other animals. R O O G
20. This insect spreads parasites when it drinks the blood 21
of animals. H E R B I V O R E N Y
21. An animal that eats plants.
WORD BANK
lion food chain plankton
insectivore parasite sunlight
owl plants scavenger
food web prey carnivore
piranha predator blue whale
mosquito whale shark anteater
vulture herbivore energy
omnivore bear
6