Food Chains, Food Web, Ecological Pyramids Essay

In an ecosystem, plants capture the cheers talent and use it to convert in thorough compounds into cipher-rich organic compounds. This operation of using the suns vigor to convert minerals (such as magnesium or nitrogen) in the basis into green leaves, or carrots, or strawberries, is called photosynthesis.Photosynthesis is exactly the beginning of a chain of energy conversions. there atomic number 18 many another(prenominal) types of animals that will tucker the products of the photosynthesis process. Examples atomic number 18 deer ingest shrub leaves, rabbits swallowing carrots, or worms eating grass. When these animals eat these plant products, nutriment energy and organic compounds be dislodgered from the plants to the animals. These animals atomic number 18 in turn eaten by other animals, again transferring energy and organic compounds from sensation animal to another. Examples would be lions eating zebras, foxes eating rabbits, or birds eating worms.This chai n of energy transferring from one species to another can continue some(prenominal) more times, plainly it eventually ends. It ends with the dead animals that argon broken push d stimulate and utilize as nutrition or nutrition by bacterium and fungi. As these organisms, referred to as decomposers, feed from the dead animals, they break down the mazy organic compounds into simple nutrients. Decomposers play a very important reference in this world because they take c be of breaking down (cleaning) many dead material. There are more than 100,000 diametric types of decomposer organisms These simpler nutrients are returned to the soil and can be used again by plants. The energy alteration chain starts all over again.Producers Organisms, such as plants, that produce their own food are called autotrophs. The autotrophs, as mentioned before, convert inorganic compounds into organic compounds. They are called producers because all of the species of the ecosystem depend on them.Con sumers All the organisms that can not progress their own food (and involve producers) are called heterotrophs. In an ecosystem heterotrophs are called ravagers because they depend on others. They obtain food by eating other organisms. There are variant directs of consumers. Those that feed directly from producers, i.e. organisms that eat plant or plant products are called primary consumers. In the formula above the grounder is a primary consumer.Organisms that feed on primary consumers are called substitute(prenominal) consumers. Those who feed on secondary consumers are tertiary consumers. In the figure above the snake acts as a secondary consumer and the hawk as a tertiary consumer. approximately organisms, like the squirrel are at different levels. When the squirrel eats acorns or fruits (which are plant product), it is a primary consumer however, when it eats insects or nestling birds, it is a tertiary consumer. Consumers are also class depending on what they eat they can be herbivores, carnivores, omnivores or scavengers.In spirit for at the preliminary picture, the concept of food chain looks very simple, but in reality it is more complex. Think roughly it. How many different animals eat grass? And from the Facts about Red-tailed Hawks page, how many different foods does the hawk eat? One doesnt find simple independent food bonds in an ecosystem, but many interdependent and complex food chain that look more like a web and are therefore called food webs.We described in the previous sections how energy and organic compounds are passed from one trophic level to the succeeding(prenominal). What was not mentioned is the efficiency of the transfer. In a highly high-octane transfer almost all of the energy would be transferred 80% or more. In a low efficiency transfer very little energy would be transferred less than 20%. In a typical food chain, not all animals or plants are eaten by the next trophic level. In addition, there are portions or materials (such as beaks, shells, bones, etc.) that are also not eaten. That is why the transfer of question and energy from one trophic level to the next is not an efficient one.One way to calculate the energy transfer is by measurement or sizing the energy at one trophic level and and so at the next. Calorie is a unit of measure used for energy. The energy transfer from one trophic level to the next is about 10%. For example, if there are 10,000 calories at one level, only 1,000 are transferred to the next. This 10% energy and material transfer rule can be depicted with an ecological benefit that looks like the one below.This pyramid helps one visualize the fact that in an ecological system there need to be many producing organisms at the bottom of the pyramid to be suitable to sustain just a couple of organisms at the top. In looking at the pyramid, can you guess how much larger the volume of for for each one one layer is as compared to the one just above it? Take a gue ss. It might not look like it but they are squiffy to 10 times larger.A canonical pyramid shape oftentimes represents a typical food chain or food web. The pyramid represents the decrease in the count of energy, the number of organisms and the biomass from the producer to the high modulate consumer levels. The decrease in the numbers and in the biomass represent the fact that, out-of-pocket to energy loss, few organisms can be supported at each successive trophic level.Pyramid of EnergyEnergy is helpless mingled with each link in a food chain. Much of the authority energy at each level never reaches the next level. Where does the energy go as it moves through a food chain? Some of the energy that enters a food chain is used as each organism carries out its life functions (i.e. foraging, metabolic processes, reproduction, predator/prey behavior, etc.). Producers contrive their own food source directly from sunlight by the process of photosynthesis. In order to carry out l ife functions, consumers acquire energy through the burning or breaking down of food molecules they consume (eat). Thermal energy (heat) is produced as a result of the burning of these food molecules. More than half of the energy from each food molecule is lost as heat. Only about 10% 20% of energy at each trophic level is available to pass on to the next level. In other words, at each level there is only about 10% available energy to put on recent biomass (growth).Pyramid of NumbersThe loss of energy at each trophic level also explains why there are usually fewer organisms in each high trophic level. The total number of plants in a particular area would generally be higher then the number of herbivores that the plants support and the number of herbivores would be higher than the number of higher order carnivores.Pyramid of BiomassBiomass is the total mass of dry organic count per unit of area. Each higher trophic level contains less biomass than the previous trophic level. Ther efore a drawing or graph that represents the amount of biomass at each trophic level would also produce the basic pyramid shape. Biomass is related to the abundance of organisms at each trophic level. compassionate Impact on Food Chains and WebsHumans have the magnate to have a great impact on ecosystems. Living organisms are a significant portion of any ecosystem, therefore any application that affects an ecosystem is also likely to affect the organisms within that ecosystem. If organisms are affected the food chains webs that the organisms are a part of will also relish the affects.