Food Chains and Food Webs

A producer is an organism that uses sunlight to make food through photosynthesis.

The energy in a food chain starts from the Sun.

A heterotroph is an organism that eats other organisms to gain energy.

A hawk receives energy from a snake.

90% of energy is lost as heat or used by organisms for survival.

A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another.

A food web is a complex network of interconnected food chains in an ecosystem.

Decomposers break down dead organisms and recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem.

Autotrophs produce their own food (e.g., plants), while heterotrophs consume other organisms for energy.

An energy pyramid is a graphical representation showing the flow of energy at different trophic levels in an ecosystem.