Food Chains, Food Webs, and Energy Pyramids
1. What is the diagram to the left called?
Food chain
2. What is the diagram to
the right called?
Food web
3. What is the difference
between a food chain and
a food web?
A food chain shows a series of
events in which one organisms eats
another. A food web is a group of
overlapping food chains.
4. What is the diagram to the left called?
Food chain
5. What is wrong with the food chain below?
In a food chain, you cannot have more than one organism eating or being eaten by another.
This diagram is showing two overlapping food chains and is a food web.
Sun
Grass
Rabbit
Jackal
Lion
Wildcat
6. What is wrong with the food chain below?
The arrows are going the wrong way on this food chain.
Sun
Grass
Rabbit
Jackal
Lion
7. What is a trophic level?
A trophic level is a level on an energy pyramid.
8. Label the levels of the pyramid below.
Decomposers
Tertiary consumer
9. Where does a producer get its
energy from?
The sun
10. What does a primary consumer eat?
Secondary consumer
Primary consumer
Producer
Producer
11. What does a secondary consumer
eat?
Primary consumer
12. What does a tertiary
consumer eat?
Secondary consumer
owl
13. Draw a food chain with the
following organisms using the diagram
to the right:
Dragon fly
bird
mouse
sun, bird, grasshopper, flower, owl.
mosquito
Sun  flower  grasshopper  bird  owl
beetle
Lady bug
bettle
aphid
larvae
flower
14. Using the food web above, put the organisms into the energy pyramid.
Bird, owl, mosquito
Lady bud, bird, mouse, beetle
aphid, grasshopper, caterpillar, larvae
flower
15. Which organism(s) fall in more than one trophic level?
bird
10 %
16. What percentage of energy is passed on to each trophic level? ______
17. In the energy pyramids below, the kilocalories are given for the producer. Fill
in the amounts for the remaining trophic levels.
.05
.008
.5
.08
.8
8
80 kcal
5
50
500 kcal
500
.1
1
10
100
1000 kcal
.005
.05
.5
5
50 kcal
18. If a secondary consumer has 20 kcal of energy, how much would it pass on to
2
the tertiary consumer? ______________
19. If a primary consumer has 700 kcal of energy, how much would it pass on to
the secondary consumer? ______________
70
20. What do the arrows on a food web show?
The arrows on a food web show the flow of energy.
21. Write a food chain with a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer,
and tertiary consumer using the food web above.
Sample answer
Sun  plankton  shrimp  salmon  heron
22. Make an energy pyramid including the organisms from the food web above.
Seal, heron, salmon
Salmon, small fish, crab
Animal plankton, shrimp, freshwater mollusk, mussels
500
Plankton
500
23. If the phytoplankton has 90 kcal of energy, how much would it pass on to the
9
mussels? ______________
24. If the shrimp has 2000 kcal of energy, how much is left to pass on to the heron?
20
(Hint: pay attention to how many trophic levels between the two) _________________