Energy Flow
Energy Pyramid
An energy pyramid shows the amount of energy each organism in the food chain receives. The higher you get up the pyramid the less energy you will receive. Animals at the top of the pyramid get very little because energy is lost as it goes from one organism to the next. Less energy is left because in each level that organism uses a majority of the energy it gets and leaves a little for the next consumer that will eat it.
Food Web
Predator and Prey Relationship
A predator and prey relationship is when a bigger animal that eats a smaller animal to survive. It happens in many species, any animal that catches and eats another animal is a predator and prey is any animal eaten by another animal. Some animals are both predators and prey because they eat another animal but are also eaten themselves by a larger animal. If either the predator or prey's population fluctuated it could cause the other to go extinct or over populate. If there aren't enough prey the predators would starve and die. If there aren't enough predators the prey would over populate.
Invasive Species
If an invasive species comes into a biome it cause a dramatic change to the native species in the biome. If a large group of an invasive species comes to a biome it competes with the native species. The invasive species could over populate the native species and that species could go extinct.
Density Dependent and Independent
Density dependent factors cause a population stops growing due to the poplulation density. This could be caused by there not being enough resources in the environment to feed all of the population so some die out and can't reproduce. Also, competition is a problem because many of the same species looking for the same food will cause some to die due to starvation and also fighting for food. Density independent factors cause a population to stop growing not due to the population density but to lack of resources or abiotic factors like wind, rain, drought, or other bad weather.
