The Food Chain

The Food Chain : 

The Food Chain

Slide 2: 

The Food Chain Every living thing needs energy in order to live. Everytime animals do something (run, jump) they use energy to do so.Animals get energy from the food they eat, and all living things get energy from food. Plants use sunlight, water and nutrients to get energy (in a process called PHOTOSYNTHESIS). Energy is necessary for living beings to grow. A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

Slide 3: 

Producers Plants are called producers. This is because they produce their own food! They do this by using light energy from the Sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to produce food - in the form of glucose/sugar.

Slide 5: 

Consumers Animals are called consumers. This is because they cannot make their own food, so they need to consume (eat) plants and/or animals.

Slide 9: 

Bacteria and fungi are decomposers. They eat decaying matter - dead plants and animals and in the process they break them down and decompose them When that happens, they release nutrients and mineral salts back into the soil - which then will be used by plants!

Slide 10: 

A food chain shows how each living thing gets food, and how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

Slide 11: 

Bigger Food Chains Here's another food chain, with a few more animals. It starts with acorns, which are eaten by mice. The mice are eaten by snakes, and then finally the snakes are eaten by hawks. At each link in the chain, energy is being transferred from one animal to another.                                                                                                                                                                                                  There can be even more links to any food chain. Here another animal is added. It goes from grass to grasshopper to mouse to snake to hawk.

Slide 12: 

There is actually even more to this chain. After a hawk dies, fungi (like mushrooms) and other decomposers break down the dead hawk, and turn the remains of the hawk into nutrients, which are released into the soil. The nutrients (plus sun and water) then cause the grass to grow.It's a full circle of life and energy!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   So food chains make a full circle, and energy is passed from plant to animal to animal to decomposer and back to plant! There can be many links in food chains but not TOO many. If there are too many links, then the animal at the end would not get enough energy.

Slide 13: 

Predators are animals that hunt other animals. Prey are the animals that are hunted and killed by predators for food.

Slide 14: 

Jungle Crow feeding on a small dead shark Spotted hyenas feed from a giraffe carcass amongst a large number of vultures Flesh fly feeding on decaying meat Scavengers predator consumes corpses or carrion that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by contributing to the decomposition of dead animal remains. Decomposers complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.

Slide 15: 

A food web is a network of many food chains.