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Ecological Pyramids

Essential Question: How do tropic pyramids show energy flow within an ecosystem?

Warm up: Go to Coral Reef Food Web website http://www.exploringnature.org/graphics/foodwebs/coral%20reef_foodweb.pdf•Producers•Primary Consumers•Secondary Consumers•Decomposers/Detrivores•Herbivores•Carnivores•Omnivores•Scavengers

Homework: Ecosystems Project and Complete “Energy in Ecosystems” Lab Questions

Wednesday, January 21, 2015Thursday, January 22, 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2015Thursday, January 22, 2015

Ecological Pyramids

Pyramid of Numbers:It depicts the number of individual organisms at different feeding (tropic) levels of food chain.

Pyramid of Energy / Tropic PyramidA diagram of interactions in a biological community representing the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next.

Trophic means relating to nutrition.Pyramid of Biomass:The biomass of the members of the food chain present at any one time forms the pyramid of the biomass.

Food and Trophic PyramidsA diagram of interactions in a biological community representing the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next.

Trophic means relating to nutrition. Food Pyramid

Trophic Pyramid

Nearly all of the energy that drives ecosystems ultimately comes from the sun.

Solar energy, which is an abiotic factor, by the way, enters the ecosystem through the process of photosynthesis.

Primary consumers only obtain a fraction of the total solar energy—about 10%—captured by the producers they eat. The other 90% is used by the producer for growth, reproduction, and survival, or it is lost as heat.

At each level, called a trophic level, about 90% of the energy is lost.

Practice: Create a Pyramid of Numbers using DE Coral Food Web Image

What do you think the rule of 10% means???

Lab: Energy Flow in Ecosystems