Food Webs and Energy Flow
Year 5 students construct and analyse food webs to understand how energy flows through ecosystems, identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers and their roles.
What You Need to Know
Key Concept Diagram
Producers (plants and algae) make their own food using sunlight through photosynthesis
Primary consumers (herbivores) eat producers; secondary consumers (carnivores) eat primary consumers
Decomposers (fungi and bacteria) break down dead matter, returning nutrients to the soil
Removing one species from a food web can affect many others — ecosystems are interconnected
Key Vocabulary
Producer
An organism (usually a plant) that makes its own food using sunlight
Consumer
An organism that gets energy by eating other organisms
Decomposer
An organism such as fungi or bacteria that breaks down dead organic matter
Food web
A diagram showing the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem
Knowledge Check
Select the correct answer for each question. Click "Check Answer" to see if you are right.
Question 1
In a food web: grass → grasshopper → frog → snake. What role does grass play?
Question 2
If all the frogs were removed from the food web: grass → grasshopper → frog → snake, what would most likely happen?
Question 3
Which organism is a decomposer?
Key Concepts Summary
- ●Producers (plants and algae) make their own food using sunlight through photosynthesis
- ●Primary consumers (herbivores) eat producers; secondary consumers (carnivores) eat primary consumers
- ●Decomposers (fungi and bacteria) break down dead matter, returning nutrients to the soil
- ●Removing one species from a food web can affect many others — ecosystems are interconnected