Energy Flows
Teacher recommended
?- Created by: KateLB
- Created on: 11-12-13 19:31
View mindmap
- Energy flows
- Food chains
- Food chains show what eats what in a particular habitat.
- The arrows in a food chain between each item always point in the direction of energy flow.
- Energy in Biomass
- Biomass is the amount of living material at a stage in a food chain.
- Radiation from the sun is the main source of energy for most communities of living organisms.
- Green plants and algae absorb a small amount of this energy to use for photosynthesis.
- The amounts of material and energy is reduced at each biomass pyramid stage because:
- Lost in organisms' waste materials
- Energy released by respiration is used for movement and other life processes and is eventually lost as heat to the surroundings.
- Pyramids of biomass
- Pyramids of biomass show the mass of living material in each stage in a chain.
- The amount of energy and material decrease from one stage to the next.
- Waste materials from plants and animals
- All plants and animals produce waste.
- Decay processes
- Is an essential life process that digests food or waste matter and recycles materials.
- Materials decay because they are broken down by microorganisms.
- Factors that affect decay:
- Moisture levels
- Temperature
- Amount of oxygen available.
- Factors that affect decay:
- Plants use some of the substances released by decay for growth
- In a stable community processes that return substances to the environment (decay) are balanced by the processes that remove and use substances
- Food chains
Similar Biology resources:
Teacher recommended
Comments
Report