M2 L1 Assignment #2 Energy Flow - Honors

1. Visit the following websites and read the information about trophic pyramids and food webs: a. http://trophiclevels.weebly.com/ b. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/intro-to- ecosystems/a/food-chains-food-webs 2. Read about the transfer of energy through the trophic levels and answer the following questions: What is the original source of energy for most living organisms? The sun Why is the energy transfer between trophic levels not even close to 100% efficient? Since energy is lost as metabolic heat when they are consumed by an organism from the next level. Is there more energy stored in the producer level or consumer levels? Why? There is more energy stored in the producer level because it absorbs energy directly from the sun and doesn't need to eat to obtain the energy. What would require more land to grow food crops? If all humans ate only vegetables or ate only meat. Explain. It would require more land if we all ate meat because you can still produce more plants from the same one, but if you just eat meat then there would need space for the food of the animal to grow plus space for each animal to grow. Place each organism in the food web below into the proper trophic level on a pyramid by drawing your pyramid on paper and taking a picture of it. Then insert the picture in the space below.