Food Chains & WebsObserving the Ecosystem

Key Objectives:

The student will:– Identify a food chain, what

makes up a food chain and how it transfers energy

Key Objectives:

The student will:– Identify how food chains

combine and interact with each other to create food webs.

Key Objectives:

The student will:– Describe a simple food chain and

food web– Share the effects and

consequences if one link of strand of a food chain or food web disappears

Key Terms

Food ChainFood WebEnergy PyramidProducerPrimary

Consumer

Secondary Consumer

DecomposerHerbivoreCarnivoreOmnivore

Food Chain

The food chain is a straight line structure or linear model that shows how each living thing gets its food.

It begins at the lowest level and works to the highest levels

Food Chain

Food Web

A matrix of interrelated food chains in an ecological community.

Food Web

Producer(s)

The green plants that use chlorophyll, water, light energy and Carbon Dioxide to create sugars.

Primary Consumers

These are called HERBIVORES, That means that they eat the green plants– Cow– Grasshopper

Secondary Consumer(s)

The first level of secondary consumers are called CARNIVORES, that means that they eat meat (other animals) for energy– Dog– Cat

Secondary Consumer

The second level of secondary consumers are called OMNIVORES, that means that they eat meat (plants and other animals) for energy– Grizzly Bear– Human

Decomposer(s)

This part of the food chain consists of fungi and microbes that break down the dead secondary consumers returning the nutrients to the soil

Energy Pyramid

The graphical representation of the nutrition levels by which the incoming solar energy is transferred into an ecosystem.

Energy Pyramid

Lab Time

Now it is time to introduce the new lab.

Please open your Green lab guides to pages50 and 51

Read the introduction silently as I read it aloud

Essential Learnings

The food chain begins with producers followed by the primary then secondary and third-level consumers and finally decomposers return nutrients to the earth

Essential Learnings

When one link of a food chain is removed, unless another source of food is found, the results are catastrophic down the chain and a species could become extinct

Essential Learnings

The food web is more intricate than a food chain. It shows an interrelation of food chains.

Essential Learnings

When one link of a food chain is broken or the population disappears, the link below it explodes in population while the link above it declines.

Essential Learnings

When one population increases without a check, that link will eat all the food available and can eventually starve itself out.

Essential Learnings

The food chain/web is a delicate cycle of life. If it is permanently disturbed/disrupted it could change life on earth forever

Essential Learnings

Humans have a responsibility to keep the earth going for further generations of beings, animals and plants.

We need to protect our environment so not to disrupt the delicate circle of life.