ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE QUARTER 1 MODULE 6

FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD WEB

▪ Plants and other photosynthetic organisms can convert light energy from the sun with
water and carbon dioxide to chemical energy and store it as food in the process of
photosynthesis.
▪ These organisms are also called producers or autotrophs.
▪ Consumers or heterotrophs on the other hand, rely on plants and other organisms to
obtain energy to sustain life.
▪ The four types of consumers are herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers.
Herbivore Plant-eater
Carnivore Flesh or meat-eater
Omnivore Variety-eater
Decomposer Nutrient-recycler

▪ Decomposers like fungi and bacteria play important role in ecosystem. They can digest
dead matter and put nutrients back to the soil.

FOOD CHAIN
▪ Producers and consumers are both involved in the series of transfer of energy called food
chain.
▪ Food chain is an interrelation of organisms in their food habit which shows why and how
organisms eat.
▪ The producer forms the base of the food chain is being fed upon by other organism that
occupies different trophic level.
▪ Each organism in respective trophic levels utilizes the energy that they have received by
eating other organisms from the lower trophic level.
▪ However, the total biomass (contains stored energy from the sun) decreases from bottom
to top.

▪ Did you notice the similarities of the organisms/animals in the last trophic level?
1. Most of them have a sharp teeth, claws, stealth, speed and agility.
2. They have special adaption for hunting.
 3. Shark, lion, eagle, wolves, jaguars and cheetah on the last trophic level are all
examples of apex predators.
4. They can control the population of the lower trophic level through predation.

Something to chew on! What do you think will happen to the ecosystem if apex predators are
removed?

▪ Arrows are used to indicate not only the feeding relationship of organisms, but they also
show the direction of energy flow. The arrow points to the organisms that will receive
the energy. The farther away the food chain from the producer, the less energy is
available.

▪ Food chain is like a circle of life energy.

▪ It starts with the grass, which are eaten by a
grasshopper.
▪ The grasshopper is eaten by the frog, and then the
frog is eaten by the snake.
▪ After the snake dies, fungi (like mushroom) and
other decomposers will break down its dead body.
▪ The remains of the snake then become nutrients
which are released into the soil. These nutrients
together with water and sun can cause the grass
to grow.

FOOD WEB
▪ In most ecosystems, energy flow is much more complex than a straight chain.
▪ In this case, a food web can be used to represent the complex feeding
interaction between trophic levels.
▪ Food web is the
combination of multiple
food chains.
▪ How many food chains
can you see from the
food web above?
▪ Trace one path at a time
with your finger.
▪ Start with the producers
namely rice and corn,
then follow the arrows to
get into different paths up
to the top predator which
is the eagle.
▪ The disturbance within
the trophic level such as
extinction, introduction of new predators and man-made or natural disasters can
cause damage on the lower or even higher trophic levels.
▪ It can also lead to severe ecological imbalance.
▪ Thus, a balanced ecosystem is important to maintain the flow of material and
energy.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE QUARTER 1 MODULE 7
ENERGY PYRAMID
▪ Different organisms need energy and the primary source of energy in the ecosystem
is the sun.
▪ Energy flow is the transfer of energy from one organism to another in a system.
▪ Each organism interacts with its system in two ways:
1. The organism obtains food energy from the system
2. The organism contributes to the system
▪ An energy pyramid illustrates the transfer of energy from the producers up to the
tertiary consumers.
FLOW OF ENERGY IN AN ECOSYSTEM
▪ The series of organisms through which the food nutrients travel from the producers to
the different consumers and up to the decomposers (when any of the organisms die)
is called a food chain.

▪ Each step in the food chain is called a food level or trophic level.

▪ At each trophic level, the food nutrients are used by the organisms partly to fuel
their activities and partly to build their body tissues.

▪ Furthermore, part of the energy involved is transformed into heat, which usually
leaves the organism’s body and escapes to the physical environment.

▪ Thus, along the food chain, the

amount of energy available to the
consumers at the trophic level
becomes less and less.

▪ A conservative estimate is that only

10% of the energy at the trophic
level is gained by the next higher-
order consumer.

▪ Producers are at the base of the

energy pyramid because plants
are the ones that can manufacture
food.

▪ The next trophic level is for the primary consumers which are composed of
herbivores, followed by the secondary consumer and tertiary consumer which are
carnivores and omnivores.

▪ They are arranged in this manner to represent the decreasing energy and population.

▪ To maintain ecological balance, the largest population should be at the base of the
pyramid. The top of the pyramid should be occupied by the organisms with the least
population.
ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS
▪ Symbiosis is a close ecological relationship between the individuals of two (or more)
different species.
ECOLOGICAL ORGANISM 1 ORGANISM 2
RELATIONSHIP
MUTUALISM ✓ BENEFITED ✓ BENEFITED
✓ It is a relationship where
both organisms benefit.

EXAMPLES:
1. carabao & egret
2. bee & flower
3. plants & animals
COMMENSALISM ✓ BENEFITED ✓ UNAFFECTED
✓ It is a relationship ✓ The ✓ The HOST is the
wherein one organism COMMENSAL is organism that is
benefits while the other the organism that neither benefited
is neither benefited nor benefits from the nor harmed.
harmed. relationship.

EXAMPLES:
1. orchids & tree
2. clownfish & sea
anemone
3. remora & shark
PARASITISM ✓ BENEFITED ✓ HARMED
✓ It is a relationship ✓ The PARASITE is ✓ The HOST is the
wherein one organism the organism that organism that is
benefits while the other benefits. harmed.
is harmed.

EXAMPLES:
1. ticks & fleas in dog
2. lice on a girl’s hair
 3. intestinal worm on man
4. liverfluke on deer
PREDATION ✓ BENEFITED ✓ HARMED
✓ It is a relationship ✓ The PREDATOR ✓ The PREY is
wherein one organism is is bigger and usually smaller and
killed and eaten by stronger and is the weaker and is the
another organism. one who kills and one who dies and is
eats. eaten by the
EXAMPLES: predator.
1. tiger eats deer
2. cat eats rat
3. bear eats fish
4. lion eats zebra

COMPETITION ✓ BENEFITED ✓ HARMED

✓ It is a relationship in ✓ The WINNER in ✓ The LOSER in the
which organisms the competition is competition does
compete with one the one to get the not get any of the
another for the same sought-after sought-after
resources in their resources. resources.
environment.

TYPES OF COMPETITION:
1. INTRASPECIFIC
✓ It is a competition that
occurs within the same
population.

EXAMPLES:
1. male elephants fighting
over territory
2. stags fighting over a
female

2. INTERSPECIFIC
✓ It is a competition that
occurs between species
or different population.

EXAMPLES
1. lions & hyenas fighting
over food
2. lion, hyena & vulture
fighting over a dead
zebra