Habitats and Food webs

Discover habitats & food webs! Learn about producers, consumers & decomposers.

Watch the following video then answer the questions below. Click on Settings to get English captions. Fill in the blanks using what you learned in the video. A habitat is the area where something lives, and every organism relies on other living and non-living things to survive. In order for an organism to survive in a habitat, it must be able to meet all of it's needs. These needs include food to eat, water, shelter to stay protected, and space to move in. Animals, like a polar bear, get their food from the other living things in their habitat. A food chain is a model to describe where an organism gets it's energy. For example, a polar gets energy from eating a seal, which ate a fish, which ate some krill, which ate some phytoplankton, which is a plant that got it's energy from the sun. A food web is when multiple food chains intersect, because most organisms eat more than just one thing. At the bottom of every food chain or food web, you will find producers, because they are the only organisms that can make their own food (remember photosynthesis?). In the middle come the consumers. Some, like turtles and many insects, only eat plants, and some, like humans, eat both plants and animals. While we know that all energy comes from the sun, matter cannot be created, it has to be recycled. And that's where the decomposers come in. Once all of those organisms at the top of the food chain die, decomposers break them down back into nutrients. These nutrients go back into the soil where plants use them, starting a brand new journey through another food chain. Using the image of a food web below answer the following questions. The arrows represent the flow of energy. What is one example of a food chain that connects the eagle to a producer? Use the food web above as your guide.(an example of a food chain could be phytoplankton →krill →fish →seal →polar bear) What is one example of a food chain that connects the python to a producer? Use the food web above as your guide. NewsELA ArticleTo hear the article read out loud click on "Listen to Instructions." The Food Chain: Who Eats Who in the Wild Living things cannot survive without food. The food chain describes what eats what in the wild. Each food chain is a possible pathway that energy and nutrients can follow through the ecosystem. An ecosystem is the network of all of the living and nonliving things in an area. Here's an example of a food chain. First, grass produces its own food using sunlight, water, air and nutrients in the soil. Next, a rabbit munches on the grass. Then, a fox sees the rabbit and eats it. One day, the fox dies. When this happens, tiny bacteria will break down its body. The fox's broken-down body will eventually return to the soil. There, it will provide nutrients for plants like grass.Levels Of Food Chains Organisms in food chains are grouped into categories. These levels are divided into three groups. First, there are producers, then there are consumers, and finally, there are decomposers. Producers make their own food. Because of this, they make up the first level of every food chain. A very common producer is a plant. Nearly all producers create food from sunlight, air, soil and water. They do this from a process called photosynthesis. It produces glucose, a type of nutrient. There are many other kinds of producers. Algae, whose larger forms are known as seaweed, are producers. Phytoplankton, tiny organisms that live in the ocean, are also producers. Some types of bacteria are producers. For example, bacteria living in active volcanoes use compounds of the chemical sulfur to produce their own food. This process is called chemosynthesis. Consumers are organisms that eat the producers. Primary consumers (herbivores) eat producers (like plants). Deer, turtles and many types of birds are herbivores. Secondary consumers eat the herbivores. Tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers. There may be more levels of consumers before a chain finally reaches its top predator. Top predators, also called apex predators, eat other consumers. Consumers can be carnivores (animals that eat other animals) or omnivores (animals that eat both plants and animals). Omnivores, like people, consume many types of foods. People eat plants, such as vegetables and fruits. We also eat animals and animal products, such as meat, milk and eggs. We eat fungi, such as mushrooms. We also eat algae, in edible seaweeds like nori, which is used to wrap sushi rolls. Detritivores and decomposers are the final part of food chains. Detritivores are organisms that eat nonliving plant and animal remains. For example, scavengers such as vultures eat dead animals. Dung beetles eat animal poop. Decomposers like fungi and bacteria complete the food chain. They turn organic wastes, such as decaying plants, into inorganic materials, such as nutrient-rich soil. Decomposers complete the cycle of life. They return nutrients to the soil or oceans for use by producers. This starts a whole new food chain.Ecosystems Support The Food Web Different habitats and ecosystems provide many possible food chains. Altogether, these chains make up a food web. In one undersea food chain, single-celled organisms called phytoplankton provide food for tiny shrimp called krill. Krill provide the main food source for the blue whale. In a grassland ecosystem, a grasshopper might eat grass, a producer. The grasshopper might get eaten by a rat. The rat is then swallowed by a snake. Finally, a hawk — an apex predator — swoops down and snatches up the snake. In a pond, the producers might be algae. A mosquito larva eats the algae. Then, perhaps a dragonfly larva eats the young mosquito. The dragonfly larva becomes food for a fish. This provides a tasty meal for a raccoon. According to the Newsela article, what is the decomposer that breaks down the fox after it dies? A worm. Bacteria. Ants. A beetle. At the bottom of every food web or food chain, you will find... producers. consumers. decomposers. soil. Where do producers get their energy from? From decomposers. From the ground. From the sun. From their food. While we are constantly getting energy from the sun, matter has to be _ by decomposers. created destroyed recycled hidden