Ecology

=ECOLOGY=

Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and each other and organisms and their environment.

Trophic Levels and food webs
Food webs are the study of how energy is transfered through the ecosystem. Food webs begin with the sun (initial source of energy) Producers make food using sunlight (these are called photoautotrophs), producers are plants and algae

Consumers are organisms that get food by ingesting or decomposing and absorbing organic material. In easier words, consumers eat or decompose. Examples of consumers are animals. Examples of a decomposer (break down dead or dying organisms) would be fungi (mushrooms) In a food web, the arrow points in the direction the energy flows

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Consumers also have levels, the bottom level consumer, the one that eats the producer would be the primary consumer. In the above food web, the cricket, squirrel, rabbit and mouse are primary consumers. The next level would be secondary consumer, they eat primary consumers, ex, the frog, mouse and snake are secondary consumers. The animal at the top of the food chain is the apex predator.

NUTRIENT CYCLES
Nutrients cycle through an ecosystem. There are three cycles that you should be familiar with.

1. Water Cycle. This is the cycling of water between ground water, atmospheric water and precipitation. The water cycle looks like this



2. The Carbon/Oxygen Cycle. This is the cycle of carbon and oxygen from animals and plants to fossil fuels, and back to atmospheric carbon. The Carbon cycle looks like this.



3. The nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle takes nitrogen gas from the atmosphere (which is in an unusable form) and fixes it to a usable form, and back to the atmosphere once again. Here is an example of the nitrogen cycle.