TROPIK LEVEL

Trophic Levels,
Energy transfer
and Pyramids
Trophic Levels
is the position an organism occupies in a
food chain. It refers to food or feeding.
Food Chain
 Food Chains
The energy flow from one trophic level to the
other is know as a food chain
Producers are at the first ENERGY LEVEL
Primary Consumers are the SECOND
ENERGY LEVEL
Secondary consumers are at the THIRD
ENERGY LEVEL
 TROPHIC LEVELS
Producers (autotrophs)
are typically plants or algae.
Plants and algae do not usually eat other organisms, but pull
nutrients from the soil or the water and manufacture their own food
using photosynthesis.
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-the synthesis of organic
compounds by bacteria or other living organisms using energy derived from reactions
involving inorganic chemicals, typically in the absence of sunlight.
 Chemosynthesis
The synthesis of organic compounds by bacteria or
other living organisms using energy derived from
reactions involving inorganic chemicals, typically in the
absence of sunlight.

The energy source for chemosynthesis may be

elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, molecular
hydrogen, ammonia, manganese, or iron. Examples of
chemoautotrophs include bacteria and methanogenic
archaea living in deep sea vents.
 Producers
• Plants harness (use) energy
from the sun through
photosynthesis
• They are the base of every
food chain
– Source of food for all
other animals
 FIRST TROPHIC
LEVEL
The plants in this image, and
the algae and phytoplankton
in the lake, are primary
producers. They take
nutrients from the soil or the
water, and manufacture their
own food by photosynthesis,
using energy from the sun.
TROPHIC LEVELS
2. Consumers - (heterotrophs) cannot manufacture their own food, and
need to consume other organisms. They are usually animals. Animal
that eat primary producers, such as plants, are called herbivores.
Animals which eat other animals are called carnivores, and animals
which eat both plant and other animals are called omnivores.
Consumers
• 4 Types
• Herbivore: eats only plants
• Ex. Cows, horses
• Carnivore: eats only meat
• Ex. Polar bear
• Onmivore: eats plants and animals
• Ex. Humans, grizzly bears
• Scavenger: carnivore that feeds on bodies of dead
organisms
• Ex. Vultures
SECOND TROPHIC
LEVEL

Rabbits eat plants at

the first tropic level,
so they are primary
consumers.
 THIRD TROPHIC
LEVEL

Foxes eat rabbits at

the second trophic
level, so they are
secondary consumers.
 FOURTH TROPHIC
LEVEL

Golden eagles eat

foxes at the third
trophic level, so they
are tertiary
consumers.
TROPHIC LEVELS
3. Decomposers (detritivores) break down dead plant and animal
material and wastes and release it again as energy and nutrients into
the ecosystem for recycling. Decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi
(mushrooms), feed on waste and dead matter, converting it into
inorganic chemicals that can be recycled as mineral nutrients for
plants to use again.
Decomposer
• Decomposers break down wastes and dead organisms and return the
raw materials to the environment
• Ex. Bacteria, fungi
 DECOMPOSERS

The fungi or the

earthworms feed on
dead matter,
converting it back to
nutrients that primary
producers can use.
TROPHIC LEVELS
• In real world ecosystems, there is more than one food chain for most
organism, since most organisms eat more than one kind of food or are
eaten by more than one type of predator. A diagram which sets out
the intricate network of intersecting and overlapping food chains for
an ecosystem is called its food web.
2Interactions in Ecosystems
• Energy flows through ecosystems.
• This energy comes from an outside source: the Sun.

• Ecologists represent food and energy

flows in food chain, food web, and pyramid
diagrams.
Ecological Roles and Relationships
VOCABULARY
• An ecosystem is a complex network of interactions. nutrients
• All organisms must take in water, food, and nutrients. producer
Nutrients are elements and compounds that organisms autotroph
need to live and grow. phytoplankton
• Organisms can be producers, consumers, herbivores, consumer
carnivores, or decomposers in ecosystems. heterotroph
• Eventually nutrients cycle back into the ecosystem for herbivores
the producers. primary consumer
zooplankton
carnivore
omnivore
detrivore
decomposer
biodegradation
predation
predator
prey
predator–prey cycle
2.3 Symbiosis
VOCABULARY
• Symbiosis refers to any close relationship between
symbiosis
two different species. There are three types of
mutualism
symbiotic relationships: commensalism
parasitism
1. Mutualism is a relationship in which both species
host
obtain some benefit from the interaction.
parasite

2. Commensalism is an interaction in which one

organism benefits while the other is unaffected.

3. Parasitism occurs when one organism (the

parasite) lives and feeds on, or in, the body of
another organism (the host).
2.5 Ecological Pyramids
VOCABULARY
• Ecologists use three different types of ecological
ecological pyramid
pyramids to illustrate ecosystems:
food pyramid
pyramid of energy
1. Pyramid of energy: represents
pyramid of numbers
how much energy is available
pyramid of biomass
in each trophic level

2. Pyramid of numbers: represents the actual number

of organisms present in each trophic level

3. Pyramid of biomass: represents

the total mass of living things in
each trophic level
Energy Pyramid
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: energy is not transferred from one
object/organism to the next with 100% efficiency
• Some of the energy is lost to the environment
• Energy Pyramid shows the amounts of energy that moves from one
level to the next
Sample Energy Pyramid
Energy Transfer
• Only about 10% of energy is transferred from one level to the next
• The other 90% is used by the organism to carry out its life processes or it
is lost to the environment
CHAPTER

2 Interactions in Ecosystems

Activity
Using the food web on
the right, predict what
might happen if a
disease killed all the krill
in the ecosystem. Which
species would be
affected, and how? Try
drawing a new food web.
Trophic Levels (feeding levels)

1
 Food Web

•Food webs are multiple food chains.

Food Webs

Food webs show ALTERNATIVE

PATHWAYS other possible
pathways through which an
organism can obtain energy
Food webs
 Energy Level Producer, primary
consumer, secondary
consumer, tertiary
consumer?

Grass
1st producer
Mouse Primary
2nd consumer
Grasshopper

Frog

Owl

Hawk
 Energy Level Producer, primary
consumer, secondary
consumer, tertiary
consumer

Grass 1st Producer

Mouse 2nd Primary consumer

Grasshopper 2nd Primary consumer

Frog 3rd Secondary

consumer

Owl 3rd and 4th Secondary and

tertiary consumer
Hawk 3rd Secondary
consumer
Transfer of Energy

• Energy lost from chain

“link” to “link” is
significant!
 from grass to sheep, loss is about 90%!

HEAT HEAT
90% 90%

100% Energy
10% Original
Available 1% Original
Energy!
Energy!
Energy lost from one trophic level (energy
level) to the next level can be represented by a
pyramid
4⁰
CONSUMERS

3
CONSUMERS
2 CONSUMERS

1 CONSUMERS

PRODUCERS
¨Each level above only gets 10% of the
energy from below
- Ex: 10,000 J of producers (plants) only give 10% of energy to
primary consumers
>1,000 J to primary consumers (snails, minnows,
dragonflies)
>100 J to secondary consumers (small fish)
>10 J to tertiary consumers (big fish)
>1 J to quaternary consumers (fish hawk)
ENERGY PYRAMID

1J

10 J

100 J

1,000 J

10,000 J
• Usually no more than 5 trophic levels
since 6th level would have very little
energy to keep it alive
Ecological Pyramid

 Which level has the most energy?

 Which level has the most organisms?
 Which level has the least organisms?
 Which level has the least energy?
THANK YOU