Energy from the Producers to the Consumers
In the Zahamena National Park, and just like every other ecosystem, there are producers, different levels of consumers, and detritivores. Producers are autrotrophs that support all of the other levels in the ecosystem. They produce their own food and reproduce asexually. Producers are the energy sources for the consumers. There are different levels of consumers: primary, secondary, tertiary, and so on. The primary consumers are the first level herbivores. They eat the primary producers. The secondary consumers are the animals that eat the primary consumers, therefore they are the first level carnivores. Secondary consumers are heterotrophs and the energy from the primary consumers goes to the secondary consumers. Tertiary consumers are your second level carnivores, and they are typically your larger animals. They are heterotrophs and they eat the secondary consumers. Detritivores are also in the ecosystem, and they are very important to the environment. Detritivores consume dead material and recycle it back into the environment. This allows for decomposition to occur faster, and it allows for richer soil as the detritivores recycle the matter back into the environment. Giving back the environment allows for carbon to be recycled back into the soil. Even though energy is being transferred from one trophic level to another, 90% of energy is lost through each transfer. Only 10% of the energy from one level transfers to the next. This is known as the energetic hypothesis. All of these can be found in the Zahamena National Park: (10 and 11)
Detritivores: (11)
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Producers: (11)
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Consumers:
Primary Consumers: (11)
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Secondary Consumers: (11)
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Tertiary Consumers: (11)
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Food Web Based Off of Energy
In the food web above, highlighted in orange are the endangered and keystone species. The primary producers are highlighted in blue, and the tertiary consumers are highlighted in pink.