Primary Producers (Autotrophs)

Primary Producers (Autotrophs)• Capture energy from the sun or

from chemicals and store it in the bonds of sugars, making it available to the rest of the community

• Energy from the sun is captured by plants, algae, or bacteria through photosynthesis.

• Energy from chemicals is captured by some bacteria through chemosynthesis.

Did You Know? Deep-sea vents, far from sunlight, support entire communities of fish, clams, and other sea animals, which depend on energy converted through chemosynthesis.

Lesson 5.3 Ecological Communities

Video: Planet Earth/Ocean Deep –Plankton, Fish, and Whale Sharks

Phytoplankon are primary producers.

explain.

Zooplankton are consumers.

explain.

Presence of plankton – what is

happening in the water?

Primary Producers

Nearly all terrestrial and shallow water aquaticliving things obtain energy either directly or indirectly from the energy of sunlight captured during photosynthesis.

Plantlike Protists

•The euglena lives in fresh water.

• In sunlight: many euglenas can make their own food.

•Without sunlight: obtain food from their environment.

Video: Planet Earth/Ocean Deep –Oceanic White-Tipped Shark and Pilot

Fish

Symbiotic

Relationship

Planet Earth/Ocean Deep: Deep Sea Vents and Chemosynthesis

Planet Earth/Ocean Deep: Deep Sea Vents and Chemosynthesis

Who are the primary producers around the deep sea vents?

These primary producers are so important. Why?

Name the process they carry out to make their food. Describe the process.

Describe the food chain that exists around the vents.

Consumers (Heterotrophs)

•Rely on other organisms for energy and nutrients

•Herbivores: plant-eaters

•Carnivores: meat-eaters

•Omnivores:combination-eaters

•Detritivores anddecomposers: recycle nutrients within the ecosystem by breaking down nonliving organic matter

California Condor

Consumers (Heterotrophs)

•Rely on other organisms for energy and nutrients

•Use oxygen to break bonds in sugar and release its energy through cellular respiration (primary producers do this, too)

California Condor

Energy: Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

What Are Fungi?

•eukaryotes that have cell walls

•heterotrophs that feed by absorbing their food

•spores to reproduce.

•cells of most fungi are arranged in a structure called hyphae.

What Are Fungi?

Fungi absorb food through hyphae that grow into the food source.

Video: Ants, Fungi, and Epiphytes

Video: The Energy Flow (Energy Pyramids)

Energy in Communities

•Primary producers occupy the 1st trophic level of any community.

• In general, only about10% of the energy available at any trophic level is passed to the next level

•most of the energy is lost to the environment as heat and metabolism.

Pyramid of Energy

Numbers and Biomass in Communities

•A trophic level’s biomass is the mass of living tissue it contains.

• In general, there are more organisms and greater biomassat lower trophic levels than at higher ones.

Video: Amoeba Sisters/Food Webs, Energy Pyramids, and Intro to Biodiversity

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oVavgmveyY

Food Chainsand Webs

• Food chain:Linear series of feeding relationships

• Food web:Shows the overlapping and interconnected food chains present in a community

The movement of energy though an ecosystem can be

shown in diagrams called food chains and food webs.

Food Chains and Food Webs

Arctic Ocean Food Web