Energy transfer and food webs

• what is the energy transfer along a food chain?

  • energy from the sun is source of energy for nearly all of life on earth
  • plants use energy from the sun to make food during photosynthesis - energy works its way into the diet of animals - eat plants
  • 90% of the energy lost in various ways - some parts of the food are not eaten so energy not taken in - some parts of food indigestible - pass through organism and come out as waste
  • lots of energy taken used to stay alive in respiration which powers all life processes
  • most of the energy is transferred to surroundings by heat
  • 10% of total energy avaliable is biomass - stored or used for growth
  • energy that is transferred from one trophic level to the next
• what do food webs show?

  • they show how food chains are linked - all species which are interdependent - one species changes it affects all of the others