Balance of nature

Patterns and processes of evolution. How evolution and natural selection are reflected in the similarities and differences of organisms. 

We can analyse the arrows in a food web to identify producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and decomposers.

We can analyse the arrows in a food web to identify producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and decomposers.

Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem.