Relationships in Food Webs

Picture Vocabulary

Energy Pyramid

• A diagram that shows the trophic levels of organisms in a food web.

Tertiary consumer

Secondary consumer

Primary consumer

Producer

Seagull

Fish

Shrimp/Krill

Water fleas

Phytoplankton

A producer makes its own food, and is the basis for the food chain & food web.

Examples:All plants, algae, and some types of bacteria

Autotroph /

Phytoplankton• Microscopic ocean

PRODUCERS.• At the base of ocean

food webs.• Use sunlight to make

food, and also produce huge amounts of oxygen, which goes into the troposphere.

The SUN provides the

energy for all the food chains on

Earth.

• Producers use the sun’s energy to make their own food in the process of photosynthesis.

• Producers are at the beginning of every food chain & food web.

/ Primary Consumer

Heterotroph /

Zooplankton• Tiny animals which eat

phytoplankton (and other zooplankton), and are in turn, eaten by small fish, and then larger fish.

Paraeuchaeta norvegica, a carnivorous copepod commonly found in fjords and North Atlantic waters

Predator

An organism that hunts and eats other organisms for its food.

Predator

Prey

An organism that is hunted and eaten by other organisms for food

Prey

Parasite• Organism that lives

in or on a host organism, doing it harm (but usually not killing it).

• A tapeworm lives in the intestines of its host organism.

Host• An organism that is

used by another organism (parasite) for nutrients, shelter, or transport.

• The host organism is harmed by this relationship.

Example: tick (parasite) on dog (host)

Biosphere

• “Bio” = “life”• “Sphere” = ball-

like structure• The biosphere is

the part of Earth that supports life

Ecosystem

All of the living and nonliving things thatinteract in an area.

Abiotic Factors

A nonliving part of an ecosystem

Soil /sand

Air

Water

Sunlight

Living Space

Land

Biotic Factors

A living part of an ecosystem.

Biodiversity (Diversity)

• The number of different species of plants and animals in an area.

Habitat

• Place an organism lives. Where it finds shelter and food, and spends its life.

A habitat can be a hole in a cactus or the underside of a fern leaf in rainforest. Or a habitat can be a large area of savanna.

Niche An organism’s particular role in an ecosystem, or how it “makes its living”.

Competition

Occurs when many organisms within an ecosystem want to use the same resources and there aren’t

enough to go around

Population• Part of Earth that

supports life.• All biotic and

abiotic factors in a community.

• All the populations in a specific area.

• All organisms of the same species in an area.

• One organism of a species.

Community

• All populations living in the same area.

Mutualism

• In this example, the cleaner shrimp gets a meal by eating the parasites off of the queen angelfish, and the angelfish gets rid of parasites.

• Symbiotic relationship in which both organisms involved benefit.

Lichen

• Organism made of a photosynthetic alga (or cyanobacteria) and a fungus that live in a close association with each other.

Invasive Species

• An invasive species, also known as an exotic or nuisance species, is an organism or plant that is introduced into a new environment, where it is not native

In less than a decade, the Indo-Pacific lionfish has become widely established along the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean. Lionfish are presently invading the Gulf of Mexico and South America. Lionfish occupy the same trophic position as economically important species (e.g., snapper and grouper) and may hamper stock rebuilding efforts and coral reef conservation measures.

Pacific Lionfish

Invasive Species - more examples• Feral Pigs (Hogs) -- Feral pigs cause

disturbance of vegetation and soil as a result of their rooting habits. The disturbed area may cause a shift in plant succession on the immediate site. Feral pigs also compete, to some degree, with several species of wildlife for certain foods. They reproduce quickly and have no natural predators. • Zebra Mussels -- have caused

alarming declines in populations of fish, birds and native mussel species, and can disrupt a city's entire water supply system by clogging the insides of pipelines. Zebra mussels also damage boat hulls, plug water systems used in boat motors, air conditioners and heads and cause navigation buoys to sink.

Ecological Succession

• Natural process by which one community of organisms slowly replaces another in a certain area

Annual Perennial Shrubs Softwood Hardwood Plants Plants and Trees - Pines Trees Grasses

Time

Pioneer Species

• First organisms to live in an area.• Usually very small organisms, such as mosses and lichens.

Moss

Lichens growing on a rock

Limiting Factor Environmental

factor that limits population sizes in a particular ecosystem

Examples: water, sunlight, food, living space

Climax Community

• Mature large organisms (trees) that are established when the community reaches a stable point where very few plants can colonize.