Summary Edexcel GCSE Biology - Paper 2 - Topic 9 - Ecosystems and Material Cycles I

Always start with a producer

Producers make their own food using the energy from the sun

Prodcuers are eaten by primary consumers Food chains

Primary consumers are then eaten by secondary consumers

Secondary consumers are then eaten by tertiary consumers

Each stage in a food chain is called a trophic level

Producers convert a small percentage of the light energy that
falls onto them into glucose.

Some of the glucose is used for respiration and some is stored
as biomass which is the mass of living material that makes up an
organism

When a primary consumer eats a producer, it uses some of the
energy it gets from the producer and some of the rest is stored Enegry transfer in food chains
as biomass

A secondary consumer then eats the primary consumer and gets
some of the energy stored in the primary consumer's biomass Ecosystem
Energy is transferred through food chains when organisms eat
eachother, however not much energy is transferred from one
trophic level to the next.

Only 10% of the energy is passed onto the next trophic level

Alot of energy is transferred to the surroundings as heat through
respiration

This energy isn't stored as biomass, so isn't transferred to the
next tropic level

Not all of the organism gets eaten and not all of it can be