B1.5.1

The main source of energy

• The Sun's radiation (pretty much it's light said in a fancypants way) is the source of energy for most of the animal groups

How do more basic plants absorb the resource of energy

• More basic plants (such as Green Plants and algae [simple, non-flowering, typically aquatic plant]) only absorb a small amount of the Sun's light.

What happens to the energy during photosynthesis?

• During photosynthesis, the type of energy changes from light energy to chemical energy

The mass of living material (biomass) at each stage in a food chain is less than it was at the previous stage.

• Biomass - mass of living material - tends to be smaller as each stage of the food chain gets further.
• The biomass at each stage can be drawn to scale and shown as a pyramid of biomass
• The amounts of material and energy contained in the biomass of organisms is reduced at each successive stage in a food chain because:
  • some materials and energy are always lost in the organisms' waste materials
  • respiration supplies all the energy needs for living processes, including movement. Much of this energy is eventually transferred to the surroundings.