The Living World: Energy Flow: Food Webs and Trophic Levels
Energy flow - The passage of energy in a one-way direction through an ecosystem.
Trophic level - An organism's position in a food chain, which is determined by its feeding relationships.
Food web - A representation of the interlocking food chains that connect all organisms.
Producers - Also called autotrophs, manufacture organic molecules from simple inorganic substances.
Consumers - Also called heterotrophs, are animals that use the bodies of other organisms as a source of food energy and body building materials.
Herbivores - Consumers that eat producers.
Carnivore - Both secondary and tertiary consumers that eat other animals.
Omnivores - Other consumers that eat both plant and animal.
Detritivores - Consume detritus, organic matter that includes animal carcasses, leaf litter, and feces.
Decomposers - Also called saprotrophs, are heterotrophs that break down dead organic material and use the decomposition products to supply themselves with energy.
Trophic level - An organism's position in a food chain, which is determined by its feeding relationships.
Food web - A representation of the interlocking food chains that connect all organisms.
Producers - Also called autotrophs, manufacture organic molecules from simple inorganic substances.
Consumers - Also called heterotrophs, are animals that use the bodies of other organisms as a source of food energy and body building materials.
Herbivores - Consumers that eat producers.
Carnivore - Both secondary and tertiary consumers that eat other animals.
Omnivores - Other consumers that eat both plant and animal.
Detritivores - Consume detritus, organic matter that includes animal carcasses, leaf litter, and feces.
Decomposers - Also called saprotrophs, are heterotrophs that break down dead organic material and use the decomposition products to supply themselves with energy.
- An organism is assigned a trophic level based on the number of energy transfer steps to that level.
A food chain and its trophic levels
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