Science 7th Grade Chapter 2 (2.1 & 2.2) Energy Flow in Ecosystems & Cycles of Ma

An organism that can make its own food. (like plants, algae, and some bacteria)(example: tree)

An organism (as a member of an ecosystem) that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms.

herbivores
carnivores
omnivores

Consumers that eat only plants

Consumers that eat only animals.

Consumers that eat both plants and animals.

A carnivore (eats only animals) that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.

(examples are catfish and vultures)

These organisms break down wastes and dead oranisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystems. If we didn't have themn, the raw materials of life would stay locked up in wastes and the bodies of dead organisms.

Decomposers

Sunlight (and then it is converted into food molecules by producers.)

Food chains and food webs

A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy.

You can follow a food chain in a diagram like the one on page 45. The 1st organism in a food chain is always a producer, like a tree. The 2nd organism feeds on the producer and is called a first-level consumer. The carpenter ant on An example of a second-level consumer is the woodpecker.

A food chain only shows 1 path of energy moving through an ecosystem, but organisms eat different things, so a food web of many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem is more realistic.