Ecosystems: Includes all living and non living parts of the environment as well as the interactions among them

Biotic Factors: Living parts of an ecosystem

Abiotic Factors: Non-Living parts of an ecosystem

Abiotic Factors determine which organisms can live in an ecosystem

Food Chain

• A food chain shows the net transfer of energy from one organism to the next starting with a producer
• The source of all energy in a food chain is the light energy from the sun
• Arrows in a food chain show the transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next
• Energy is transferred from one organism to another by food consumed

Example of Food Chain

• Indirectly all other animals depend on plants for energy

Food Webs

• Network of interconnected food chains
• More realistic of showing connections between organisms as animals rarely rely on one source of food

Food Web Example