Name
TEACHER KEY
Period _______ Date ______________
Environmental Science – FOOD WEB – Chapter 5.1
Directions: Fill in the information from page 130 in the Environmental Science Textbook or the online chart.
Environmental Science Standard and element:
SEV1. Students will investigate the flow of energy and cycling of matter within an ecosystem and relate these
phenomena to human society.
b.) Relate energy changes to food chains, food webs, and to trophic levels in a generalized
ecosystem, recognizing that entropy is a primary factor in the loss of usable food energy
during movement up the trophic levels.
1.) Put chart in Science Notebook behind the Chapter 5 Word Study
after it has been checked.
2.) Figure 8 Description was accurate and complete with no abbreviations.
3.) 15 Labels on drawing were accurate and complete.
4.) Drawings and arrows were accurate with all parts included.
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(Part of Notebook Grade)
A food web is a diagram of the links among species in an ecosystem – essentially who eats what. A
food chain shows only the organisms that contribute to the diet of the top consumer. The base of a food web
is occupied mostly by vegetation (producers) and fine organic debris (decomposers). Herbivores (primary
consumers) and carnivores (secondary consumers) occupy the higher levels. Omnivores occupy an
intermediate level in the food web. Food webs are complicated by the fact that many species feed at various
levels.
Plants convert the sun's energy into their leaves, roots, stems, flowers and fruit through
photosynthesis. Organisms eat the plants, and through the process of respiration use the stored energy to
conduct their everyday activities. Additionally, some energy is lost as heat. In all, the organism uses about 90
percent of the stored plant's energy. After several steps in the food chain, no energy is left to recycle.
Figure 8 This food web shows how the largest organisms, such as a killer whale, depend on the smallest
organisms, such as algae, in an ocean ecosystem.
FOOD WEB