Provenance: Image from Microsoft image galleries. These ideas are further explored in Energy Principle 4. Coal comes from plants that have been buried in sediment, compacted, and preserved. Oil and natural gas come from photosynthetic plankton which has been preserved in sediments on the ocean floor, heated and chemically altered into hydrocarbons. The original source of energy in fossil fuels is sunlight, which fueled photosynthesis. These ideas also introduce the origin of organic matter that later can become fossil fuels. This has implications for humans as we strive to keep a growing human population adequately nourished. Eating producers (plants) at the bottom of the food chain is the most efficient way for humans to acquire energy for living. This points out a critical factor in the distribution of energy in human foods too. (Learn more about the transfer of energy in ecosystems.) The efficiency of the food chain decreases as you go upward. This leaves just 10% of the original energy available for the next consumer. Animals use up 90% of the energy contained in the foods they eat for their normal activities. In each step, the energy that was originally emitted by the Sun is consumed, but that energy also dissipates with each step. Plants are then eaten by primary consumers who are in turn eaten by secondary consumers, and so on. Plants use energy from the Sun to create organic matter. Food webs show how energy moves throughout a system. Reuse: This item is in the public domain and maybe reused freely without restriction. Provenance: Image from US Geological Survey In either case, the overall productivity of an ecosystem is controlled by the total energy available. There are a few exceptions to this, such as ecosystems living around hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which derive their energy from chemical compounds such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. This process is the fundamental source of organic material in the biosphere. Sunlight allows plants, algae, and cyanobacteria to use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds like carbohydrates. The continual input of energy, mostly from sunlight, sustains the process of life. The changes happen, for example, as a result of changes in agricultural and food processing technology, consumer habits, and human population size. Humans are modifying the energy balance of Earth's ecosystems at an increasing rate. The amount and kind of energy and matter available constrain the distribution and abundance of organisms in an ecosystem and the ability of the ecosystem to recycle materials.ģ.6 Humans are part of Earth's ecosystems and influence energy flow through these systems. Eating producers is the lowest and thus most energy-efficient level at which an animal can eat.ģ.5 Ecosystems are affected by changes in the availability of energy and matter. An organism that eats lower on a food chain is more energy-efficient than one eating higher on a food chain. Continual input of energy, mostly from sunlight, keeps the process going.ģ.4 Energy flows through food webs in one direction, from producers to consumers and decomposers. At each level in a food chain, some energy is stored in newly made chemical structures, but most is dissipated into the environment. The chemical elements that make up the molecules of living things are passed through food chains and are combined and recombined in different ways. The breakdown of food molecules enables cells to store energy in new molecules that are used to carry out the many functions of the cell and thus the organism.ģ.3 Energy available to do useful work decreases as it is transferred from organism to organism. Food is composed of molecules that serve as fuel and building material for all organisms as energy stored in the molecules is released and used. So here, both provide defense or protection.3.2 Food is a biofuel used by organisms to acquire energy for internal living processes. Because of this, clownfish lives in the safety of its tentacles while in return they protect the anemone from its predators. They are of stingy nature, but it does no harm to the clownfish and its family. The clown fish lives between the tentacles of sea anemones. Defense symbiosis: The clownfish and sea anemones in the large ocean share such a defensive relationship.And the larger animal gets nicely cleaned up. In return, the larger animal helps the cleaning animal to move around, here, the first organism provides not only food but transportation for the second organism. Cleaning symbiosis: In such relationships, one removes and cleans parasites and tiny worm organisms off another organism, which in turn provides a source of food.Very much mutualistic, both the parties benefit. For example, pollination, pollinators, such as bees and birds, sit on plants obtain nectar from them and in return carry pollen, which gets stuck on their bodies that the plants need for fertilization.
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