how do u tink the food chains reprent the flow of energy from 1 living thing to another ecosystem?

Question

i don't know what i said but...............

Answer 1

Almost everything you eat can be traced back through food chains to the sun. A food chain consists of a series of organisms in which the first organism is eaten by a second and the second is eaten by a third. During this process, nutrients and energy in the eaten organism are transferred to the organism that eats it.

Most of the food we eat comes from simple food chains derived from human-controlled agricultural ecosystems. For example, the beef we eat comes from a cow that ate corn. The corn received its energy from the sun.

Human Controlled Food Chain








sun
corn
beef cow
steak


However, in natural ecosystems, a hawk may eat a snake that may have received its energy from a mouse, a frog, or a rabbit. If it ate a mouse, that mouse may have consumed seeds from any number of plants. None of these food chains is exactly alike, which makes studying energy transfer complex.

Natural Food Chain










sun
grass
rabbit
snake
hawk


The food chain begins with producers, organisms such as green plants, that can make their own food. Through photosynthesis, producers convert solar energy to chemical energy—energy in the chemical bonds of the food. Of all the energy a plant receives from the sun, only about three percent is converted into chemical energy. The amount of chemical energy varies depending on the plant species and the location of the plant. (Refer to the What is Energy? unit for more information on chemical energy.)

Plants are eaten by consumers, which are organisms that cannot make their own food. Herbivores are consumers that eat only producers. Consumers that prey on other consumers are called carnivores. If an animal can get its energy by ingesting either producers or consumers, it is an omnivore.


A bison is a herbivore.

A wolf is a carnivore.

A raccoon is an omnivore.


A food chain does not consist of a set amount of organic matter and energy being passed along like a baton from one organism to another. In reality, the baton gets smaller and smaller with each transfer. When an herbivore eats a plant, it does not get all the energy the plant received from the sun. This decrease is because the herbivore may not eat all parts of the plant, and it may not be able to digest what it does eat. These undigested plant parts are excreted as waste. The same holds true for other organisms along the food chain (i.e., when one organism eats a second, the consumer does not receive all the energy obtained by and contained within the second organism).

Another reason energy obtained by one organism isn’t passed on in the food chain is because it is no longer available (Second Law of Thermodynamics). Some energy has already been used by the first organism. A plant uses some of the energy it receives to grow and function. A herbivore uses its energy to grow, but also to look for food and run away from predators. A predator uses large amounts of energy to chase after its food in addition to its regular life processes (e.g., breathing, digesting food, moving). The energy these organisms use eventually leaves their bodies in the form of heat.

The amount of energy that is transferred from one organism to the next varies in different food chains. Generally, about ten percent of the energy from one level of a food chain makes it to the next. Click on thumbnail below to see an example of heat loss in food chains.


Click on thumbnail to enlarge.


Because energy is "lost" with each successive link, there must be enough energy in the organisms to allow for this loss and still have enough energy remaining for the consumers in the next level. In other words, the total biomass (organic matter) of the producers must be greater than the total biomass of the herbivores they support, and the total biomass of the herbivores must be greater than that of the carnivores. Because of this energy loss there are usually more producers than herbivores, and more herbivores than carnivores in an ecosystem.

What happens to the massive amount of organic material (and its potential energy) that is unconsumed or undigested?
Decomposers, such as, bacteria, fungi, and small animals such as ants and worms, eat nonliving organic matter. Decomposers cycle, nutrients back into food chains and the remaining potential energy in unconsumed matter is used and eventually dissipated as heat. Therefore, decomposers are an integral component of all ecosystems (First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics). (Refer to Energy Rules unit for more information on energy transfer and the Laws of Thermodynamics).

Food chains cycle nutrients within an ecosystem and provide the mechanism for energy to flow through the ecosystem. In natural ecosystems, these food chains have many alternate routes through which energy can flow, creating integrated, complex food webs. Through agriculture, humans have simplified food chains so the energy flow is more direct. It is very easy to trace almost anything you eat back to its original source of energy: the sun.

Answer 2

Webs. food webs shows energy flow of all organism in an ecosystem food chains only show one "chain" of the energy flow. For example lets say there is Plant 1 and Plant 2, and Animal 1. The food web would show how all three are involved. The food chain would only show one plant and the animal though.

Answer 3

Haven't ever thought about it in that way to be honest

Answer 4

Funny, I was wondering the same thing myself