B17 - Organising an ecosystem

• Food chains


  • producers
  • primary consumers
  • secondary consumers
  • apex predators
• Predators


  consumers that kill and eat other animals
• Prey


  animals killed and eaten by other animals
• Apex predators


  carnivores with no predators
• Food webs


  a way of showing the complex feeding relationships between organisms
• Decomposition


  • Decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi, break down dead plant and animal matter by secreting enzymes into the environment
  • The small insoluble food molecules produced then diffuse into the decomposer
  • These materials are cycled through the ecosystem by decomposers returning carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and mineral ions to the soil
• The decay cycle

  
• The carbon cycle

  
• The water cycle