Food Chains and Trophic Pyramids
1. What is the primary energy
source for life on earth?
2. What is the main means by
which autotrophic beings
obtain energy?
3. Which is the autotrophic
group responsible for the
production of most part of the
molecular oxygen of earth?
4. In the ecological study of
food interactions, what are
the autotrophic beings called?
5. How are the heterotrophic
beings divided in the
ecological study of food
interactions?
6. What is a food chain?
7. How is energy transferred
along a foodchain?
8. What are trophic levels?
How many trophic levels can a
food chain have?
9. What are primary
consumers? Can a food chain
present quaternary consumers
without having secondary or
tertiary consumers? Can a
tertiary consumer of one chain
be a primary or secondary
consumer of another chain?
10. What is the difference
between the concepts of food
chain and food web?
11. What are the three main
types of trophic pyramids
studied in Ecology?
12. What do numeric pyramids
represent?
13. In a numeric pyramid to
which trophic level does the
base always refer? What
about the top level?
14. In a numeric pyramid is it
possible for the base to be
smaller than the other levels?
15. In the short term what will
happen to the levels above
and below a population of
secondary consumers of a
numeric pyramid if a large
number of individuals from
this population dies?
16. What do biomass pyramids
represent?
17. What is dry mass?
18. What do energy pyramids
represent?
19. Into which type of energy
is the light used in
photosynthesis transformed?
20. Can the amount of
available energy in a given
trophic level be larger than
the available energy in inferior
trophic levels? What does that
condition means to the
conformation of the energy
pyramids?
21. What is the gross primary
production of an ecosystem?
How does GPP relate to
photosynthesis?
22. What are the factors that
for influencing photosynthesis
also interfere with the gross
primary productivity?
23. What are the destinations
of the organic material
fabricated by the producers?
24. What is the formula of the
net primary production (NPP)?
How does NPP relate to the
energy pyramids?