ecology notes 2 biotic components
TRANSCRIPT
BIOTIC COMPONENTS
1st Law & Food webs
Eat or be eaten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM BuffaloEat and be eaten
Click on the link:
Autotroph / primary producer
Photosynthesis Chemosynthesis
PPP: A plant = producer = photosynthesisImage source: http://hartm242.wordpress.com/tag/chemosynthesis/
Makes own food (glucose) from primary energy source (sun or deep-sea thermal vents)
Heterotroph/ consumer
• Cannot make their own food • Must eat other living organisms
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mrshart/933775
Hetero (others) troph (nutrition)
Herbivore or primary consumer
palynivore (pollen)xylophage (wood)
Eat producers
Folivore (leaves)frigivore (fruit)granivore (seed)
mucivore (sap)nectivore (nectar)
Secondary consumers
Predator- hunting & eating
Eat consumer level below them
Carnivore = meat-eaters Omnivore = eat animals and plants
Prey- hunted & eaten
Quaternary consumers eat tertiary consumers (eagle eating a snake)
Top/ Apex predator
The top-end of the food chain
Humans often not considered natural enemies
Is not eaten by anything else(is not prey) because it has little/no natural enemies*
Detritivores• Eat detritus: plant and animal remains, shed parts
(skin, antlers, leaves), and wastes• Scavengers- detritivores that specialized in carrion
(dead animal bodies) or other animal wastes
Decomposers (aka saprotrophs)• gets its energy from non-living organic matter.• Help speed up the decaying process.
Cool fact: A gram of soil typically contains 40 million bacterial cells, and the bacteria on Earth form a biomass that exceeds that of all living plants and animals.
Fungi eat the dead matter by releasing acid to melt the decaying material, then sucking in all the acid, along with the melted material
Image source: sheppardsoftware.com
TROPHIC LEVELS
The difference between webs and chains
top predator