Food Chains and Food Webs

1. Food Chains and Food Webs

2. Food Chain • A food chain is a sequence of organisms, each of which uses the next, lower member of the sequence as a food source • Arrows go in the direction of energy flow

3. Food Chain

4. Food Chain • In a food chain each organism obtains energy from the one at the level below • Plants are called producers because they create their own food through photosynthesis

5. Food Chain • Animals are consumers because they CANNOT create their own food, they must eat plants or other animals to get the energy that they need

6. Food Chain • Bacteria and fungi that consume the bodies of dead organisms and other organic wastes are called decomposers

7. Primary Producers of NJ Marshes Cattails Marsh Mallow http://www.nicerweb.com/doc/class/pix/PRAIRIE/2005_07_18/Typha_angustifolia.jpg http://www.ncdot.org/doh/Operations/dp_chief_eng/roadside/wildflowerbook/graphics/images/page14a.jpg Marsh Fern Blue Flag Iris http://www.ontariowildflower.com/images/blueflag2.jpg http://wisplants.uwsp.edu/scripts/detail.asp?SpCode=THEPALvPUB

8. Three Types of Consumers • Herbivores: animals that eat only plants • Carnivores: animals that eat only other animals • Omnivores: animals that eat animals and plants

12. Other Ways to Classify Consumers • Primary Consumers: Herbivores • Secondary Consumers: Carnivores that eat herbivores • Tertiary Consumers: Carnivores that eat other carnivores • Quaternary Consumers: Carnivores that eat carnivores that eat other carnivores

14. Primary Consumers in Marshes Muskrat (eats mostly Cattails) http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/graphics/muskrat1.jpg http://www.advancedwildlifecontrolllc.com/images/muskrat.jpg

15. Primary Consumers in Marshes • Wood Duck eats seeds like those of the Swamp Marsh Mallow and Blue Flag Iris http://dsf.chesco.org/ccparks/lib/ccparks/wood_duck_pair.jpg

16. Primary Consumers in Marshes • Glassy-winged Toothpick Grasshopper – eats leaves of plants like cattail and pickerelweed http://bugguide.net/node/view/41662

17. Secondary Consumers • Black Rat Snake eats eggs of animals like wood duck http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/tate/Terms.htm

18. Secondary Consumers • Swamp Sparrow eats seeds but also insects like the toothpick grasshopper http://www.jeaniron.ca/2007/SwampSparrow6645.jpg

19. Eat other animals in marsh including snake and sparrow Tertiary Consumers Osprey www.audubon.org www.montereybay.com

20. Omnivore • Racoon eats seeds, fruits, insects, worms, fish, and frogs… and pretty much anything else they can get their paws on! http://abouttitusville.com/BobPaty/Animals/images/Racoon.jpg

21. Food Web A food web is an interlocking pattern of food chains

26. Autotrophs • Organisms that can make their own food

27. Heterotrophs • Organisms that cannot make their own food

29. Biological Magnification • The increasing concentration of a pollutant in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food web

31. Biomass • The total amount of organic matter present at a trophic level • Decreases as you move up trophic levels

32. Ecological Pyramid • A diagram that shows the amounts in different trophic levels • 3 types of pyramids • Biomass • Numbers • energy

33. Biomass Pyramid

34. Energy Pyramid

35. Numbers pyramid

36. 10% Rule • Only 10% of the energy from one trophic level is passed on the to the next trophic level