12 Organisms and their Environment

Showing the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, beginning with a producer.

A network of interconnected food chains.

An organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

An organism that gets its energy feeding on other organisms.

An animal that gets its energy by eating plants.

An animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.

An organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic matter.

A unit containing all of the organisms and their environment, interacting together, in a given area.

The position of an organism in a food chain or food web.

Plants use energy from the light to build new substances that act as energy stores. They are ingested by consumers and some of the energy becomes stored in that consumer which can be ingested by the next. Only 10% of energy available to an organism is passed since 90% of it is lost as heat and in undigested materials. The reason why there are usually fewer than five trophic levels is because the energy transfer makes it so that the top predator receives basically no energy.