Which term describes the basic path in which energy moves from producers to consumers in a simple ecosystem model?

• A. Food chain
• B. Food web
• C. Biome
• D. Prediction

Answer: (A)

Energy moves through ecosystems in a line of feeding relationships, called a food chain. In a simple model, producers such as plants capture sunlight and store that energy as chemical energy. Primary consumers eat the producers to gain energy, then secondary consumers eat those primary consumers, and so on. This straight-line pathway illustrates how energy passes from one trophic level to the next, with energy diminishing at each step due to metabolic losses as heat. A food web would show many interconnected chains and is more complex than the basic path. A biome refers to a large geographic region with characteristic climate and organisms, not the transfer path. A prediction isn’t related to how energy moves through an ecosystem.