Food Webs and Energy Transfer Flashcards
Grade 5 · Science · Flashcards
Review the key vocabulary and concepts of energy flow through ecosystems.
Flashcards
- Producer (Autotroph)
- An organism that makes its own food using sunlight (photosynthesis) or chemical energy. Examples: plants, algae, phytoplankton.
- Primary Consumer
- An organism that eats producers directly. Also called an herbivore. Example: rabbit eating grass.
- Secondary Consumer
- An organism that eats primary consumers. Example: a frog eating grasshoppers.
- Tertiary Consumer
- An organism that eats secondary consumers; often a top predator. Example: an eagle eating a snake.
- Decomposer
- Bacteria and fungi that break down dead organic matter, recycling nutrients back into the soil.
- Food Chain
- A simple, linear pathway showing how energy flows from one organism to the next in an ecosystem.
- Food Web
- An interconnected set of food chains showing the many feeding relationships in a real ecosystem.
- 10% Rule
- Approximately 10% of energy at one trophic level passes to the next; the other 90% is lost as heat.
- Energy Pyramid
- A diagram where each level is 10% the size of the level below it, showing how energy decreases up the food chain.
- Trophic Level
- A feeding level in a food chain. Level 1 = producers; Level 2 = primary consumers; Level 3 = secondary consumers, etc.
- Photosynthesis
- The process by which producers use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce glucose (food) and oxygen.
- Predator
- An animal that hunts and eats other animals (prey) to obtain energy.
- Nutrient Cycle
- The movement of nutrients (like carbon and nitrogen) through an ecosystem, aided by decomposers returning them to the soil.
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