Energy in Ecosystems

• What do organisms use energy

  for?

  
  

  -Growth and repair(approx. 10% of

  total energy)

  
  

  -Movement

  
  

  -To keep warm (warm-blooded)
• Not all body parts are eaten or digested by the consumer. Therefore the energy contained in those

  structures will be lost.
• Animals use energy to move and keep warm. Heat energy is given off and lost to the environment.

  Plants also use up energy during respiration.
• At each link in a chain the majority of the

  energy available is lost and only a small quantity

  is passed on to the next organism in the chain.
• The ecological Pyramids of Numbers, Biomass and Energy provide graphical representations for ecologists to better understand the workings of an ecosystem by showing the feeding relationship in a

  community.
• The relationship takes the form of a

  pyramid because:

  
  

  -at each link of the food chain energy

  loss limits the quantity of living matter

  which can be supported at the next

  level

  
  

  -the final consumer tends to be larger

  in body size than the one before it and

  so on
• A pyramid of energy always takes the form of a true

  pyramid since only a proportion of energy is

  transferred from one level to the next. The rest is

  lost to the surrounding environment.