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Trophic Levels and Energy Flow

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Every organism in an ecosystem is affected by the other organisms within the community it lives. Create a sample community and complete all of the following points about your community.

a) Define "trophic levels". Provide a specific example of four species and describe their trophic-level relationships.

b) Trace energy flow through your sample community.

c) Trace contaminant flow (for example, DDT) through your sample community.

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Solution Summary

This solution is completed in about 450 words. This response begins by outlining the importance of the trophic level concept, providing examples, and then sets up a sample community to discuss the flow of energy transfers.

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A trophic level contains a group of organisms united because they obtain their energy from the same part of the food web in a biological community. A maple tree, for example, obtains its energy from the sun. Therefore, it is in the primary or first trophic level. The same could be said of all plants: rose bushes, grass, etc. A rabbit, on the other hand, is a herbivore. It eats plants. Therefore, it belongs to the second trophic level. Other animals that would share this trophic level would be a grasshopper, a caterpillar, a mouse, and a vegetarian human. Examples of organisms in the third trophic level would be carnivores, any organism ...

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