Biology › Section S · Ecosystems and conservation › Topic S.2
Energy flow through ecosystems
Matter is recycled in an ecosystem, but energy only passes through, and a large share is lost as heat at every feeding step. That one-way loss sets how long food chains can be, why top predators are scarce, and why some pollutants become most concentrated in the animals at the top.
In this topic
- Energy flows, matter cycles
- Three ways to get energy
- Gross and net primary productivity
- Why most energy is lost at each step
- Worked example: from sunlight to grazers
- Net production efficiency
- Worked example: a beetle and a vole
- Ecological pyramids
- Biomagnification
- Worked example: reading a contaminant chain
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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