Food Chains and Ecosystems
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What you will learn
- 1Describe how energy passes through a food chain
- 2Identify producers, consumers, predators, and prey in an ecosystem
Mini Lesson
A food chain shows how energy passes from one living thing to another. It always begins with the sun, which provides energy to plants. Plants use this energy to make food, making them the producers. Animals that eat plants or other animals are called consumers.
How a Food Chain Works
- The sun provides energy for plants to grow.
- Plants (producers) are eaten by primary consumers (e.g. rabbits eat grass).
- Primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers (e.g. foxes eat rabbits).
- Energy is passed from one organism to the next along the chain.
- A food web shows multiple food chains linked together in an ecosystem.
Words to know
Producer
A living thing (usually a plant) that makes its own food using sunlight.
Consumer
A living thing that gets energy by eating plants or other animals.
Predator
An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
Prey
An animal that is hunted and eaten by a predator.
Food chain
A sequence showing how energy passes from one organism to another.
Ecosystem
A community of living things interacting with each other and their environment.
Arrows in a food chain point in the direction energy flows — from the organism being eaten toward the one eating it.
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