Owl Pellet Dissection

Victims

Copy the following slides onto page 9 of your notebook.

Trophic Levels

• Energy enters an ecosystem in the form of sunlight.

• Plants use photosynthesis to convert this abiotic energy into biotic energy.

• The energy is moved through the food chain when a primary consumer eats the plant.

• At each level of the energy pyramid, 10% of the energy is lost.

• It takes about ten pounds of biomass from one trophic level to produce one pound of each organism at the next trophic level.

• (ADD TO YOUR GLOSSARY) Biomass-the total amount of organic matter present in a trophic level.

What does this mean?

• An elephant has to eat 660 pounds of grass a day.

• A shrew eats 80-90% of its body weight every day.

• A blue whale has to eat 8000 to 12000 pounds of krill a day.

• A lion eats 10-15 pounds of food a day.

There are less organisms as you go up the trophic levels.

Barn Owl

Redback Vole

Shrew

White Footed Mouse

House Mouse

Meadow Vole

Mole

Norway Rat