Interdependence and Food webs

Interdependence and Food Webs:

All organisms need food. Some are producers whom make their own food. Others get their food from other organisms. Primary consumers eat plants and secondary consumers eat primary consumers.

Food chains show what organisms eat what. The organisms that feed at the same level in a food chain are at the same trophic level. Food chains can be joined together to create a food web. This shows the feeding relationships between different organisms. Interdependent organisms depend on each other for food. 

Energy stored in food is released during respiration. Some energy is transferred into biomass. Biomass is substances that form tissues. Energy in biomass is transferred to the next organisms in a food chain when it's eaten.

But some energy that's released in respiration is transferred into forms of energy that aren't useful. So this energy is wasted.

If we measured the biomass of all the organisms in a food chain we could draw a pyramid of biomass.
Here is an example:

Key Words:

Producers
Primary consumers
Secondary consumers
Food chains
Trophic level
Food web
feeding relationships
Interdependent
Respiration
Biomass
Pyramid of biomass


Questions:

1. What is a producer?
2. Why do food chains start with a producer?
3. What happens to the biomass in a food chain as you go up the trophic levels?
4. How are living things interdependent?

What you should Know:

That interdependence is they dynamic relationship between all living things.

An understanding of how some energy is transferred to less useful forms at each trophic level and this limits the length of a food chain.

An understanding that the shape of a pyramid of biomass is determined by energy transferred at each trophic level