Nature Shows and Food Chains

• Enjoyment of nature shows due to limited TV access and cool science.
• Trauma when predators eat prey, a common scene in nature shows.

Food Chains

• Producer: Organism that makes its own food (autotroph), e.g., plants.
• Primary Consumer: Eats producers, e.g., grasshoppers (heterotrophs).
• Secondary Consumer: Eats primary consumers, e.g., frogs.
• Tertiary Consumer: Eats secondary consumers, e.g., snakes.
• Arrows in food chains indicate direction of energy flow.

Energy Pyramid

• Producers at the base (Trophic Level 1) have the most energy.
• Only ~10% of energy is passed to the next trophic level.
  • Example: 10,000 kilocalories at Trophic Level 1 -> 1,000 kilocalories at Trophic Level 2 -> 100 kilocalories at Trophic Level 3.
• Energy is lost through heat and undigested material.

Impact of Removing Organisms

• Removing an organism (e.g., grasshoppers) affects other organisms in the chain.
• Removing apex predators (e.g., snakes) can cause overpopulation of prey (e.g., frogs).

Food Webs

• Ecosystems have food webs, not just single food chains.
• Food Web: Multiple interacting food chains.
• Shows interactions among a variety of producers and consumers.
• Biodiversity: Variety of organisms in an area.
  • Affected by area size and climate.
  • Contributes to ecosystem sustainability.

Benefits of Biodiversity

• High biodiversity offers multiple food sources for predators, adding resilience.
• Critical to protect ecosystem biodiversity due to its numerous benefits, including economic.

Decomposers

• Essential but often omitted from food webs/chains.
• Decomposers: Eat dead organisms, e.g., bacteria and fungus.
• Arrows would eventually point to decomposers in food webs/chains.

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