Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region V
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF CAMARINES SUR
SCIENCE 8
:
Name: _________Quarter: 4 Week: 5
Grade Level/Section: Date: _ ________

ENERGY FLOW IN THE ECOSYSTEM

I. Introductory Concept
You have learned about the diversity
of organisms. Based on the body structures
and functions, organisms are classified using
the hierarchical taxonomic system (i.e.
domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order,
family, genus, and species).
All these organisms need energy to
sustain life. Every activity that organisms do
in ecosystem like breathing, moving,
running, burrowing, growing require energy.
The flow of energy is the most important
Figure 1. Energy Flow in Eccoysytem
Source :https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3HJhY9GbVG8/maxresdefault.jpg
factor that controls what kind of organisms
live in an ecosystem.
Scientists study how energy moves through an ecosystem by assigning organisms in
that ecosystem to a specific level, called a trophic level. Energy moves from one trophic
level to another. This means that energy flows from one organism to another in the ecosystem.

Trophic Levels
Trophic level is the step in a nutritive series, or food chain, of an ecosystem. The
organisms of a chain are classified into these levels based on their feeding behavior. Trophic
levels include different categories of organisms such as producers, consumers, and
decomposers. Producers are the basic trophic level while top predators are the peak level.
Producers are autotrophs, meaning they produce their own food through photosynthesis
or chemosynthesis.
Consumersare animals that eat producers. They are split into many different categories:
primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and more.

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 Primary consumers are
plant- eating herbivores;
secondary consumers eat the
herbivores; tertiary consumers can
consume both the primary and
secondary consumers. There may
be more
levels of consumers until eventually
the top predator is reached.

Decomposers
Decomposers are also part Figure 2. Energy Pyramid
Source; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/ Ecological_Pyramid.png

of the food web and include organisms that feed on all varieties of dead plants and
animals which are responsible for returning nutrients to the environment.

Energy Transfer
The amount of energy that flows through the different trophic levels of a food
web is usually displayed as a pyramid (see above). This pyramid shows much more
information than just a diagram for the hierarchy between predator and prey. The
amount of area in each trophic level displays the amount of energy present in the
biomass. Producers clearly occupy the largest area on the pyramid, and therefore
the largest amount of energy. As you move up the trophic levels the amount of
energy gained from consumption decreases by a factor of approximately 10 per
level. This means that primary consumers only receive 10% of the energy from primary
producers when consumed.

I. Learning Skills/Competency:
Describe the transfer of energy through the trophic levels (S8LT-IVi-22)

III. Activities
Activity 1. Components of a Food Chain in an Ecosystem
Direction: Read the article “Monfort Bat Cave”. Answer the questions that follows.

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 Monfort Bat Cave

The Island of Samal, part of Davao del Norte Province, is off the coast of
Mindanao. In this island is the Monfort Bat Cave which is approximately 245
feet (75 meters) long and has five entrances. Bats cover 75 percent of its
ceilings and walls. An estimated 1.8 million bats, the largest known
population of Geoffroy’s rousette fruit bats in the world, are overloading
Monfort Bat Cave on the Philippines’ Samal Island.

Geoffroy’s rousette fruit bats feed on fruit and nectar. Their role
as pollinators and seed dispersers is essential in sustaining Philippine
forests, including such important commercial fruits as durian. Each bat
consumes 1½ to 3 times its body weight nightly in fruit and nectar. This
colony could consume 550 tons (500,000 kilograms) of nectar from
durian and other trees, pollinating an incredible number of flowers.
Worldwide, cave-dwelling bats are in alarming decline due to
human disturbance and destruction of their cave roosts. In some areas,
including Samal Island, bats are captured and eaten by humans.
Colonies like the one in Monfort Bat Cave are now rare and in urgent
need of protection. Their loss would endanger the health of forests and
human economies.
The bat’s colony should be able to survive natural predators –
crows, rats, 10-foot (3-meter) pythons and occasional monitor lizards –
just as bat populations do elsewhere. Untamed dogs and cats,
however, also seem to do bat hunting at Monfort Bat Cave.

© Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org. Used with permission.

Guide Questions:
1. What are the organisms found in the surrounding area of Monfort Bat Cave?
List them down in the table below.

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2. What group/s of organisms are considered as producers?

3. What part of the durian trees and other trees served as food for the bats?

4. Why is there a decline in the population of cave-dwelling bats? What are

these organisms that feed on bats?

5. List down the organisms that feed on other organisms.

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

A. Direction: Divide the organisms into the following categories as shown in the
table below:

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 B. Direction: Based on Table 2, construct a food chain with at least 3 organisms
representing the producer, 1st order consumer and 2nd order consumer.

Guide Question:
6. Describe a food chain you constructed.

IV. References
Campo P. et. al. (2014). K to 12 Modules Learner’s Module for Grade 8, DepEd BLR
Prototype and Contextualized Daily Lesson Plans n Grade 8 Science
https://www.britannica.com/science/trophic-level
https://geo.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Oceanography/Book%3A_Oceanography_(H
ill)/11%3A_Food_Webs_and_Ocean_Productivity/11.4%3A_Food_Chains_and_Food_
Webs

Prepared by: RENZ CARLO B. ENCISO

Writer

Quality Assured by: EMILY B. ESMABE

Education Program Supervisor-1, Science

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