Food Webs

Before Video

• A food chain is a sequence of living things in which each one each feeds on the one below it.

• A food web is model made of intersecting food chains.

• Energy in almost all food can be traced back to the sun. Plants use light energy to produce their food through photosynthesis. Plants are then eaten by animals. Those animals are then eaten by other animals.

• A decomposer is organism that eats dead and decaying matter. Common decomposers include bacteria, fungi, worms and beetles.

After Video

• Animals eat other animals to obtain energy and building blocks (nutrients) in order to grow and repair.

• Plants are producers because they produce their own food through photosynthesis. Animals are consumers because they consume plants or other animals.

• An eagle is an apex predator, meaning it is at the top of the food web. Nothing else will attack and eat an eagle. Eagles will eat things like birds, snakes, mice and other animals.

• An apex predator is an animal that feeds on other animals but is at the top of the food web, meaning that it has no predators. Apex predators help control the balance of an ecosystem by keeping the populations of other animals in check.

• Zebras eat grass and they are eaten by predators like hyenas and lions.

• These living things are decomposers. They recycle matter, by breaking down dead and decaying matter. They turn it into nutrients in the soil, which plants use. If ecosystems didn’t have decomposers, dead plants and animals would just pile up.

• Humans over-hunting predators such as wolves can lead to a boom in the population of their prey (deer). This can lead to all those deer eating too much grass. Also, when humans cut down trees (deforestation), soil can erode more easily, affecting fish in streams and rivers. When the population of any of these animals are impacted, so are the animals that eat them. It’s all a delicate balance.

A sequence of living things in which each one feeds on the living thing below it.

A food web is a model made of intersecting food chains.

A process by which plants use sunlight to make sugar from carbon dioxide and water.

A living thing (almost always a plant) that takes energy from the sun and make its own food. They are found in the first level of a food web.

An animal found at the top of a food web and is not eaten by any other animals. Examples include sharks, owls and lions.

Living things that break down dead and decaying organisms. The most common decomposers are bacteria and fungi.

Tiny living things that are everywhere around us. We can only see them with a very powerful microscope. They come in different shapes such as rods, spirals, and spheres. Bacteria are important in an ecosystem to break down dead and decaying matter.

A fungus is a living thing that helps break down dead and decaying matter. More than one fungus are called fungi. Some familiar fungi are mushrooms, mold and yeast.

A living thing that is no longer found alive anywhere on Earth today.

Compost is usually made by gathering plant material such as leaves and vegetable peels into a pile and letting it decompose over many months thanks to bacteria and fungi. The resulting substance can be used as a fertilizer for plants.