SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

C-GEE1 ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE

First Semester | AY 2022-2023

Module No. 12: The Energy Flow in an Ecosystem

Time Frame: 1 Week

1. Overview

This is a three-hour module that present how energy flow from one level to another among
the different kinds if living organism found in an ecosystem.

2. Lesson Objectives:

At the end of this module the students are able to:

1. Identify the different level on how energy flow from one level to another and the
important role of these organism per level in supporting the existence and balance of
life on earth

3. Discussion:

In ecological context , energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow
of energy through a food chain. Energy can pass from one trophic level to the next when organic
molecules from an organism's body are eaten by another organism. However, the transfer of
energy between trophic levels is not usually very efficient. Trophic levels are the feeding
positions of all organisms in a specific ecosystem. You can think of them as food chain levels or
as a trophic level pyramid. The first trophic level, or base, of an ecosystem has the highest
energy concentration. This energy is dispersed among animals in the subsequent three or four
levels. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/high-school-biology/hs-ecology/trophic-levels/a/energy-flow-and-
primary-productivity
An energy pyramid (sometimes called a trophic pyramid or an ecological pyramid is a
graphical representation, showing the flow of energy at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
The width of each bar represents the units of energy available within each trophic level. The flow
of energy moves through the layers of the energy pyramid from the bottom-up, and is gradually
reduced as energy is used up by the organisms at each level
To get energy. Food chains and webs presents the transfer of energy within an ecosystem,
from one organism to another. The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and
each time of there is energy loss about 90% of the energy, some being lost as heat into the
environment (as an effect of respiration) and some being lost as incompletely digested food
(egesta).
The primary consumers get about 10% of the energy produced by autotrophs, while
secondary consumers get 1% and tertiary consumers get 0.1%. This means the top consumer of
a food chain receives the least energy, as much of the food chain's energy has been lost between
trophic levels. Due to the way that energy is utilized as it is transferred between levels, the
total biomass of organisms on each trophic level decreases from the bottom-up.
The concept of trophic level was developed by Raymond Lindeman (1942), based on the
terminology of August Thienemann (1926): "producers", "consumers" and "reducers" (modified
to "decomposers" by Lindeman

C-GEE1- ENVISCI: MOD12: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM Ms. Alexcie Camille C. Luzano AY 2022-2023
 SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
C-GEE1 ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
First Semester | AY 2022-2023

 The base of the energy pyramid indicates the

energy available within primary producers.
Primary producers, also known as autotrophs, are
organisms which create their own food by taking
their energy from non-living sources of energy. In
most cases, these are photosynthesizing plants,
which use energy from the sun to create their own
nutrition in the form of simple sugars, although
there are exceptions such as deep sea organisms,
which use chemical energy from hydrothermal
vents.
 The second trophic level consists of primary
consumers. These are the herbivores that feed
solely on primary producers.
 The third and fourth levels are made up
of secondary consumers and tertiary consumers.
These are carnivores and omnivores, which can
feed on any of the lower levels, although mainly
consume organisms from the trophic level directly
beneath them.
 The top layer of the energy pyramid contains apex
https://biologydictionary.net/energy-pyramid/ predators. These are mostly carnivorous animals
that have no natural predators.

A trophic level is the group of organisms within an ecosystem which occupy the
same level in a food chain. There are five main trophic levels within a food chain, each of
which differs in its nutritional relationship with the primary energy source. The primary
energy source in any ecosystem is the Sun (although there are exceptions in deep sea
ecosystems).

 Producers (autotrophs) are typically plants or algae. Do not usually eat other
organisms, but pull nutrients from the soil or the ocean and manufacture their own
food using photosynthesis. That is why they are called primary producers. In this way,
it is energy from the sun that usually powers the base of the food chain. An exception
occurs in deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems, where there is no sunlight. Here
primary producers manufacture food through a process called chemosynthesis.

C-GEE1- ENVISCI: MOD12: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM Ms. Alexcie Camille C. Luzano AY 2022-2023
 SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
C-GEE1 ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
First Semester | AY 2022-2023

 Consumers (heterotrophs) are species that cannot manufacture their own food and
need to consume other organisms. Animals that eat primary producers (like plants)
are called herbivores. Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores, and
animals that eat both plants and other animals are called omnivores.
 Decomposers or detritivores (bacteria, earthworms, flies and fungi) are organisms
which consume dead plant and animal material, converting it into energy and
nutrients that plants can use for effective growth. Although they do not fill an
independent trophic level, these contributors recycle waste material from all other
trophic levels and are an important part of a functioning ecosystem.

It is important to understand how the food chain works so that we know what are
the important living organisms that make up the food chain and how the ecology is
balanced. Photosynthesis is only the beginning of the food chain where plants make food
so they will grow, bear fruit and flowers (producers). There are many types of animals
that will eat the products of the photosynthesis process (consumers). When these animals
eat these plant products, food energy and organic compounds are transferred from the
plants to the animals.
(https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/food_chains/)

A food chain
 is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one
organism eats another.
 At the base of the food chain lie the primary
producers. The primary producers are autotrophs
and are most often photosynthetic organisms such as
plants, algae, or cyanobacteria.
 The organisms that eat the primary producers are
called primary consumers. Primary consumers are
usually herbivores, plant-eaters, though they may
be algae eaters or bacteria eaters.
 The organisms that eat the primary consumers are
called secondary consumers. Secondary consumers
are generally meat-eaters—carnivores.
 The organisms that eat the secondary consumers are
called tertiary consumers. These are carnivore-
eating carnivores, like eagles or big fish.
 Some food chains have additional levels, such
as quaternary consumers—carnivores that eat
tertiary consumers. Organisms at the very top of a
food chain are called apex consumers.

There are two types of food chains:

a. the grazing food chain, beginning with autotrophs, and the detrital food chain,
beginning with dead organic matter (Smith & Smith 2009). In a grazing food chain,
energy and nutrients move from plants to the herbivores consuming them, and to
the carnivores or omnivores preying upon the herbivores.
b. the detrital food chain, dead organic matter of plants and animals is broken down
by decomposers, e.g., bacteria and fungi, and moves to detritivores and then
carnivores.

C-GEE1- ENVISCI: MOD12: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM Ms. Alexcie Camille C. Luzano AY 2022-2023
 SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
C-GEE1 ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
First Semester | AY 2022-2023

https://www.toppr.com/ask/question/ou0-differentiate-between-grazing-food-chain-and-detritus-food-chain-by-giving-any-thicepedelointheme/

https://diffzi.com/grazing-food-chain-vs-detritus-food-chain/

A Food Web
Unlike in food chains, an organism in a food web can occupy several different
trophic levels. It represents multiple pathways through which energy and matter flow
through an ecosystem. It is a system that includes many intersecting food chains. It
demonstrates that most organisms eat and are eaten, by more than one species.

C-GEE1- ENVISCI: MOD12: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM Ms. Alexcie Camille C. Luzano AY 2022-2023
 SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
C-GEE1 ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
First Semester | AY 2022-2023

Life’ Relation to Physical Laws

The amount of energy flowing through the biosphere obeys basic principle known as the
Laws of Thermodynamics. It is the use of heat as convenient measurement of chemical energy in
many reactions. Life follows the 1st Laws of Thermodynamics (Law of conservation of mass),
it states that energy input must equal the energy output. The efficiency of energy transfers in a
system can be calculated by dividing useable energy output by the total energy output n referred
to as waste energy during cell respiration (metabolism). The key transformation of reaction of
living things occur in cellular respiration. In the position of the trophic level, the higher the
position of the living organism in the less useable energy there is available for it.

4. Progress Check:
Explain how important are food chain and food web to the earth ecological balance.

5. Evaluation
On-line exam: Google Form

References

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/high-school-biology/hs-ecology/trophic-
levels/a/energy-flow-and-primary-productivity
https://socratic.org/questions/according-to-the-law-of-conservation-of-matter-matter-is-
never-created-or-destroyed
https://biologydictionary.net/energy-pyramid/
https://www.biologyonline.com/dictionary/food-web
https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/food_chains/

C-GEE1- ENVISCI: MOD12: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM Ms. Alexcie Camille C. Luzano AY 2022-2023