Question

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1. distinguish producers, consumers, and decomposers from one another.
2. illustrate the flow of energy through a simple food chain that ends with a lion as the final consumer.
3. classify a pet as an autotroph or heterotroph and as an herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. explain.
4. create and use a simple food web to identify producers, consumers, and decomposers in your community.
5. draw an energy pyramid for a food chain made up of grass, a caterpillar, tiger beetle, lizard, snake, and a roadrunner. assume that 100 percent of the energy is available for the grass. at each stage, calculate and show how much energy is lost and how much is available to the next trophic level.
6. write a paragraph that explains the pathway of energy transfer through the pyramid of energy shown in figure 16.

Explanation:

1. Producers are organisms that make their own food through photosynthesis (e.g., plants). Consumers eat other organisms for energy (e.g., animals). Decomposers break down dead organisms and waste, recycling nutrients (e.g., fungi, bacteria).
2. A simple food - chain could be grass (producer) → zebra (primary consumer) → lion (secondary consumer). Energy flows from the sun to the grass, then to the zebra when it eats the grass, and finally to the lion when it eats the zebra.
3. A pet is a heterotroph as it cannot make its own food. The classification as herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore depends on the pet. For example, a dog is an omnivore as it eats both plant - based and animal - based foods.
4. In a community food web, plants are producers. Herbivores that eat plants are primary consumers, carnivores that eat herbivores are secondary consumers, and decomposers break down all dead organisms.
5. The energy pyramid would have grass at the base (100% energy). As we move up, the energy transferred to the next trophic level follows the 10% rule. So, if the caterpillar eats the grass, it gets 10% of the grass's energy, the tiger beetle that eats the caterpillar gets 10% of the caterpillar's energy, and so on. Energy lost at each stage is 90% (as heat, metabolic processes etc.).
6. Energy transfer in the energy pyramid starts from the producers at the base. They capture energy from the sun. As we move up the pyramid to primary consumers, only about 10% of the producer's energy is transferred. Secondary consumers get about 10% of the primary consumers' energy and so on. The rest of the energy is lost as heat and used for metabolic processes at each level.

Answer:

1. Producers make food via photosynthesis, consumers eat others, decomposers recycle dead matter.
2. Grass → Zebra → Lion shows energy flow from sun - to - producer - to - consumers.
3. Pets are heterotrophs; classification as herbivore/carnivore/omnivore varies by pet type.
4. In community food web, plants are producers, herbivores/ carnivores are consumers, fungi/bacteria are decomposers.
5. Energy pyramid with grass at base, 10% energy transfer at each level, 90% energy loss.
6. Energy transfer starts at producers, 10% transfer at each level, rest lost as heat/metabolic use.