Photosynthesis and Food Webs

We're finishing up our Life Science strand so we're going to review the process of photosynthesis and the players within food webs.

Plants are producers, meaning they make their own food through photosynthesis. They take in carbon dioxide and water, and using energy from sunlight they produce oxygen and glucose (this is a sugar that the plants use as food).

Food webs are ways to see who eats who. All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food, these animals are called herbivoers. Others eat animals that eat plants, these are carnivores. Animals that eat both plants and other animals are called omnivores. Finally, when living organisms die, they are broken down by decomposers such as fungi and bacteria, and the nutrients are returned to the soil where they can support the growth of producers.

For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.

Remember: When one playerin the web is removed, it affects all the others!