Food Chains and Food Webs Producers ALL LIVING

Food Chains and Food Webs

Producers ALL LIVING THINGS NEED ENERGY FROM FOOD. Producers are living things that can make their own food by using energy in sunlight. A food chain always begins with a producer.

Consumers Animals are consumers. A consumer is an organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms.

Decomposers Decomposers are consumers that get energy by breaking down dead plants and animals. They return materials stored in dead plants and animals to the soil, water, and air. Then green plants use the materials to make food.

Remember this?

Herbivores are animals that only eat plants. They are called primary, or first level consumers.

Herbivores Primary consumers eat producers.

Carnivores are animals that eat meat.

Carnivores They can be secondary (second-level) consumers, which means they eat the primary consumers, or…

Carnivores …tertiary (third-level) consumers, which means they eat the secondary consumers.

Omnivores eat both plants and animals. Humans are omnivores.

Food Chain A model of how energy passes from plants through a series of animals is called a food chain.

A Food Chain The arrows show the flow of energy from one organism to the next.

1. What do the arrows in a food chain or food web represent? The arrows in a food chain or food web represent the flow of energy.

Food Webs A food web shows several interconnecting food chains.

2. What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? The difference between a food chain and a food web is that a chain shows one producer and set of consumers. A food web shows multiple interconnecting food chains (in an ecosystem).

3. Where does the energy for all living things ultimately originate? The energy for all living things ultimately originates (starts or comes from) the sun.

4. What is always the last step in a food chain or food web? The last step in a food chain or food web is always decomposers.