Food Webs & Food Chains

Biosphere/Environment: biologically inhabited areas of the world

Habitat: a specific environment in which an organism lives

Resources:

Finite: limited

Infinite: unlimited

Methods of organizing the environment

Food Web

Food Chain

Roles in the Ecosystem


Autotroph/Producer

Heterotroph/Consumer

Make their own food or feed off the sun.

Acquire food by consuming other organisms. Herbivores are heterotrophs feeding off plants, carnivores feeding off other animals.

Always a prey. They are the bottom of the food chain. All of their energy is consumed and used by organisms of higher echelons in the chain.


Prey: killed for food (by predators)

Always a predator to something, but can also be prey. Eg: a fish predates shrimp and krill, but is also is eaten by sharks.


Predator: Predator: kills and eats other organisms. Also lowers/controls population sizes.

Can be herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore.


Carnivore: eats other animals exclusively
Omnivore: eats other plants and animals
Herbivore: eats plants exclusively

Decomposer

Consume waste and dead bodies of all organisms. They recycle materials that can be reused by producers.

Limiting Factors limit the size of the population. Can be biotic or abiotic.

Carrying Capacity: the sheer population an ecosystem can hold.

Competition: serves to control species population size by prohibiting the growth of some

Scavengers: eat dead organisms

Less descriptive, gives basic understanding of the topic, more useful for certain topics, eg: Trophic Pyramids

More in depth, has endless ways of describing things. More difficult to understand, however more beneficial for topic at hand.

Environmental Influencers

Abiotic: Nonliving influence

Biotic: living things that interact with each other

Ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Useful to provide an easy description of the Energy Pyramid/Trophic Pyramid

Definition: the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next along the food chain.

Better at describing environmental relationships and how their many details

Eg: Soil, Water, Air, Light, Minerals

Eg: Animals, Plants, Protists, Fungus, Bacteria

Biodiversity: Refers to a variety of life. This is in regards from genes to ecosystems.

Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is always regarded as superior to non-biologically diverse environments. This is because they generally are more resilient to disturbances and changes.

Biodiversity make studying the biosphere more interesting, with the abundance of species forming vast food webs

Examples of Biodiversity

Biodiverse areas are attributed with strong plant growth.

Warm/Wet tropical regions

Mexico

South Africa

Brazil

Madagascar

"Madagascar is a megadiverse country with a high concentration of endemic species. Its ecosystems include many types of forests, savannah, steppes, rivers, lakes, wetlands, mangroves, drylands and reefs. Currently, these unique ecosystems are home to approximately 12,000 species of vascular plants (96% endemic), 586 species of ferns (45% endemic), 194 species of palms (97% endemic), 1000 species of orchids (85% endemic), 389 species of reptiles (90% endemic), 278 species of amphibians (100% endemic), 282 species of birds (37% endemic), 159 species of fish (66% endemic), 104 species and subspecies of lemurs (100% endemic), 60 species of non-flying small mammals (92% endemic), 43 species of bats (73% endemic) and 13 species of carnivore (77% endemic)." - https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=mg#:~:text=Currently%2C%20these%20unique%20ecosystems%20are,%25%20endemic)%2C%20282%20species%20of

Turtle BZ

"South Africa is home to 10% of the world's plant species and 7% of its reptile, bird and mammal species. Furthermore, it harbors around 15% of the world's marine species." - https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=za#:~:text=While%20it%20occupies%20only%202,up%20to%2070%25%20for%20invertebrates.

Africa Rainforest

"With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity. Mexico ranks 1st in biodiversity in reptiles with 707 known species, 2nd in mammals with 438 species, 4th in amphibians with 290 species, and 4th in flora, with 26,000 different species." - http://www.southernportal.com/biodiversity.html#:~:text=With%20over%20200%2C000%20different%20species,flora%2C%20with%2026%2C000%20different%20species.

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