Energy transfers
Energy transfers occur everywhere in an ecosystem. Organisms change energy form their environment or from their food into other types of energy, and that energy is used for things like breathing, moving, or is stored within the organism to use later.
Food chain- the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms.
Food web- a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. Tropic levels-each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy. Producer- an organism that can make its own food by using energy from its surroundings. Consumer-an organism that eats other organisms or organic matter. Primary consumer- the first organism in a food web. Secondary consumer- consumes the primary consumer. Tertiary consumer- consumes the secondary consumer. Decomposer- an organism that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms or animal wastes and consuming or absorbing the nutrients. |
The First Law of Thermodynamics or The Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can't be created nor destroyed. Energy can change from one form to another but if it is in a closed system, it will remain constant. The Second law of Thermodynamics states when energy is transferred, there will be less energy available at the end of the energy transfer then at the beginning. This is because of entropy, which is the measure of disorder in a closed system. All energy will not be useful to the organism so not all of the energy will be transferred. Throughout ecosystems, energy flows from organism to organism. It starts with the producer, who captures the sun's energy through photosynthesis and use it as food. Next, the primary consumer comes in and eats the producer, and the secondary consumer gets its energy from the primary consumer, and then the tertiary consumer gets its energy from the secondary consumer. The primary consumer is the first trophic level, the secondary consumer is the second trophic level, and the tertiary consumer is the third trophic level. They all contribute to the energy flow of the ecosystem. But not all of the energy is transferred to each organism. Only 10% of energy that an organism contains gets transferred into the consumer because of entropy. In the food web below, it shows how the sun gives its energy to the plant, who gives its energy to the multiple consumers who each transfer their energy to one another. Each of these organisms' energy roles are determined by how much energy they obtain and how much they need to obtain, and how that interacts with the other organisms interact within the other organisms in their ecosystem. A food chain is a simplified diagram that shows how energy passes between trophic levels in a single instance versus in a whole ecosystem. They both are visuals on how energy transfers throughout an ecosystem.