4.4 – Explain the names given to different trophic levels to include producers, primary,
secondary and tertiary consumers and decomposers.
– Producer: Plants which photosynthesise to provide food.
– Consumer: Animals that eat plants or other animals.
• Primary consumer: Animals that eat the producer and are usually herbivores.
• Secondary consumer: Animals that eat the primary consumer and are carnivores.
• Tertiary consumer: Animals that eat the secondary consumer and are carnivores.
• Quaternary consumer: Animals that eat the tertiary consumer and are carnivores.
– Decomposers: Decay dead material and help to recycle nutrients.
4.5 – Understand the concepts of food chains, food webs, pyramids of number, pyramids
of biomass and pyramids of energy transfer.
– →: is eaten by
– Food chain: The simplest way of showing feeling relationships within an ecosystem.
– Food webs: A more complex demonstration of feeding relationships and how each
food chain in an ecosystem is related to each other
– Pyramids of number: Represent the numbers of organisms in each trophic level in a
food chain, irrespective of their mass.
– Pyramids of biomass: Show the total mass of the organisms in each trophic level,
irrespective of their numbers.
– Pyramids of energy transfer: Shows the transfer of energy through a food chain
4.6 – Understand the transfer of substances and of energy along a food chain.
– Substances are transferred along a food chain.
PRODUCER → PRIMARY CONSUMER → SECONDARY CONSUMER …
4.7 – Explain why only about 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the
next.
– Only 10% of energy is transferred from one tropic level to the next.
– All the other 90% of energy is used for life processes.