7.4.1 Trophic Levels and Biomass

• The main trophic levels include producers, consumers, and decomposers
• What is the relationship between biomass and energy flow in an ecosystem?

  Biomass stores energy
• Match the trophic level with its example:

  Producers ↔️ Plants

  Primary Consumers ↔️ Rabbits

  Secondary Consumers ↔️ Foxes

  Tertiary Consumers ↔️ Eagles
• Producers in a food chain convert sunlight into energy through the process of photosynthesis.
• What are trophic levels in a food chain or food web?

  Feeding groups
• Biomass represents the total mass of living organisms in an ecosystem.


  True
• The concept of biological magnification occurs when toxins increase in concentration at higher trophic levels.
• What is the role of decomposers in a food chain?

  Return nutrients
• Order the flow of energy in a simple food chain:

  1️⃣ Producers

  2️⃣ Primary Consumers

  3️⃣ Secondary Consumers

  4️⃣ Tertiary Consumers
• Which organisms are at the bottom of the trophic levels?

  Producers
• Match the trophic level with its role and example:

  Producers ↔️ Convert sunlight into energy, grass

  Primary Consumers ↔️ Eat producers, grasshoppers

  Secondary Consumers ↔️ Eat primary consumers, frogs

  Decomposers ↔️ Break down dead matter, fungi
• Trophic levels are the different positions in a food chain or food web where organisms obtain their food.
• What type of organisms are primary consumers?

  Herbivores
• What happens to energy as it moves from one trophic level to the next?

  It decreases
• What does biomass represent in an ecosystem?

  Total mass of living organisms
• Match the trophic level with its example:

  Producers ↔️ Plants

  Primary Consumers ↔️ Rabbits

  Secondary Consumers ↔️ Foxes
• What role do producers play in a food chain?

  Convert sunlight into energy
• Producers make their own food through photosynthesis.


  True
• Biomass is often expressed in units like kilograms per square meter
• Match the ecosystem type with its biomass transfer efficiency:

  Forest ↔️ 5-10%

  Grassland ↔️ 10-20%

  Aquatic ↔️ 15-25%
• What are the two primary factors that reduce biomass transfer efficiency in ecosystems?

  Metabolism and waste
• Order the biomass transfer efficiencies of different ecosystems from lowest to highest:

  1️⃣ Forest

  2️⃣ Grassland

  3️⃣ Aquatic
• What is transferred between trophic levels in an ecosystem?

  Biomass and energy
• Biomass transfer efficiency is the same across all ecosystems

  False
• In a simple food chain, the grasshopper converts about 10-20% of the grass biomass into its own biomass
• What is the starting point of energy flow in an ecosystem?

  Producers
• Producers have the largest biomass in a biomass pyramid


  True
• In a grassland ecosystem, grasshoppers represent primary consumers
• Decomposers return nutrients to the soil

  True
• Grasshoppers, as primary consumers, eat producers
• Decomposers are essential for nutrient recycling in ecosystems

  True
• A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms where each one feeds on the one below it, transferring energy
• What process do producers use to make their own food?

  Photosynthesis
• Order the main trophic levels in a food chain from lowest to highest:

  1️⃣ Producers

  2️⃣ Primary Consumers

  3️⃣ Secondary Consumers

  4️⃣ Tertiary Consumers

  5️⃣ Decomposers
• Measuring biomass is essential for assessing carbon storage in ecosystems.


  True
• What is the biomass transfer efficiency in a grassland ecosystem?

  10-20%
• Energy flow in an ecosystem begins with producers, such as plants, that convert sunlight into chemical energy through photosynthesis
• A biomass pyramid typically tapers from the base to the top because biomass transfer efficiency decreases at each trophic level.


  True
• In a simple food chain, only 10-20% of the biomass is transferred from grass to the grasshopper and then to the frog
• Match the trophic level with an example organism:

  Producers ↔️ Plants

  Primary Consumers ↔️ Grasshoppers

  Secondary Consumers ↔️ Frogs

  Tertiary Consumers ↔️ Snakes