CHAPTER 9

LESSON 3
Interactions of Living Things

Energy and Matter

Key Concepts
• How does energy move in
What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide ecosystems?
whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before
• How is the movement of
column if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After
you’ve read this lesson, reread the statements to see if you have changed energy in an ecosystem
your mind. modeled?
• How does matter move in
Before Statement After
ecosystems?
5. Most of the energy used by organisms on
Earth comes from the Sun.
6. Both nature and humans affect the
environment.

Identify the Main Points

Energy Flow Highlight the main idea of
The food you eat is your energy source. It gives you fuel each paragraph. In another
to walk, play games, read books, sit at a desk, and even color, highlight the details
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

sleep. All living things need energy for cell processes. that support the main idea
to help you study this lesson.
Some organisms get energy from food that they make
using light or chemical energy. Other organisms get energy
by eating other organisms. The energy from the organism
that is eaten is transferred to the organism that eats it. In
this way, energy travels through organisms, populations,
communities, and ecosystems in a flow. A flow, like the one
shown below, is different from a cycle. Energy that moves
in a flow does not return to its source, as it does when
Visual Check
matter cycles.
1. Contrast Look at the
Cycle
figure. How is energy in a
flow different from matter in
a cycle?

Flow

Reading Essentials Interactions of Living Things 155

 Organisms and Energy
All organisms need energy to survive. Scientists classify
organisms by the way they get the energy they need. Almost
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY all energy on Earth comes from the Sun. Some organisms use
transform the Sun’s energy directly. Plants directly transform the Sun’s
(verb) to change in composi- energy into the energy-rich sugars that they use for food. A
tion or structure
few organisms can make food using the energy from
chemicals in the environment. Other organisms cannot
capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and make food.
They must get energy by eating food. Organisms that cannot
make their own food using the Sun must depend on
organisms that can.

Producers
Recall that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it
can change form. Producers change the energy available in their
environment into food energy. They then use this food energy
Reading Check for living and reproducing. Humans and other organisms
2. Explain Why must can get this energy by eating producers.
producers be present in an
environment? Photosynthesis Energy from the Sun always enters a
community through producers. Some producers use a
chemical process called photosynthesis to transform light
energy from the Sun into food energy. Producers that use light
energy include most plants, algae, and some microorganisms.
The figure below shows how photosynthesis converts light
energy into food energy.

Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Light
Visual Check energy Carbon
3. Summarize What dioxide
happens to light energy
during photosynthesis? Sugars
Water

Photosynthesis
Key Concept Check
4. Describe How does Chemosynthesis Some communities have producers that get
energy move from a producer their energy from chemicals, rather than light energy. Some
to other organisms? producers use a chemical process called chemosynthesis to
change chemical energy into food energy. For example,
bacteria living near volcano vents in the ocean floor use
chemicals as an energy source. The bacteria make food
energy from the chemicals.

156 Interactions of Living Things Reading Essentials

 Consumers
Organisms that cannot make food get their energy by
eating other organisms. These organisms are called consumers.
Consumers cannot make their own food and get energy by eating other
organisms. Scientists classify consumers by what they eat.
Consumers are either herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, or
detritivores. Some examples are shown in the table below.
Detritivores eat dead plant and animal material. A type of Reading Check
detritivore called a decomposer breaks down dead material 5. Name What are the four
into simple molecules. These molecules can be used by other types of consumers?
organisms, such as plants.

Type of Consumer What They Eat Examples

Herbivores only producers, such cows

as plants
Omnivores both producers and human beings
other consumers
Carnivores only other consumers lions
Detritivores energy and nutrients some insects, fungi, Visual Check
(Decomposers) from dead plants and worms, some bacteria 6. Predict Which type of
animals and protists consumer likely has the most
food choice? Explain.
Modeling Energy Flow
Energy is always moving through ecosystems as organisms
eat other organisms. A food chain models how energy flows in an
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

ecosystem through feeding relationships. The figure below is a

food chain. It shows how energy passes from a plant to a
snake. Each stage of a food chain has less available food
energy than the last one. Some food energy is lost to the
environment as thermal energy, commonly called heat.

Producer
Visual Check
Plant 7. Connect How does
Herbivore energy move from the
mouse to the snake in the
Grasshopper food chain?
Omnivore

Mouse
Carnivore
Snake

Reading Essentials Interactions of Living Things 157

 Food Webs
A food web is a model that shows several connected food chains.
The figure below shows how food energy moves through a
forest ecosystem. Notice that food energy can move through
Key Concept Check several different pathways.
8. Compare a food chain
with a food web.

Modeling Energy Pyramids

As energy travels through different organisms, the amount
of available food energy decreases. An energy pyramid shows
the amount of energy available at each step of a food chain.
The figure below is an energy pyramid. More food energy is
available at the base of the pyramid, where producers are. At
each level, organisms use some of the energy and some is

Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

transformed to thermal energy. As a result, there is less food
Reading Check energy to pass on to the next level. Carnivores are usually at
9. Identify a Main Point the top of the energy pyramid for an ecosystem. These are
What happens to the the animals that prey only on other animals.
amount of available energy
in higher levels of an energy
pyramid? Carnivores

Omnivores

Visual Check
10. Explain Energy moves Herbivores
from producers to which
consumer at the highest
level on the energy pyramid?
Producers

158 Interactions of Living Things Reading Essentials

 Matter Cycles
Matter is the physical material that makes up Earth and
Use a trifold book to
everything on it. Like everything else on Earth, your body is summarize information
made up of matter. Most of the matter in your body is water. about how matter cycles in
Your body also contains matter in other forms, such as an ecosystem.
carbon and oxygen.
Water Cycle
Like energy, matter is not created or destroyed. Like energy,
Nitrogen Cycle
matter is transferred through the environment. Unlike energy,
matter cycles through an environment, rather than flowing Carbon Cycle
through it. Matter is used again and again. The types of matter
found in an environment and the amounts of that matter
determine which organisms can live there.

Water Cycle
Water is important to all life. It moves through every
ecosystem on Earth. Water cycles in different forms. Its
forms include a liquid, a gas (water vapor), and a solid (ice).
The water cycle is shown below.
• Water evaporates from oceans, rivers, and other
bodies of water. Plants release water vapor during
transpiration. Some organisms also release water
vapor when they breathe out (exhalation).
• The water vapor then rises into the atmosphere. It
condenses and falls as rain or snow (precipitation).
• Water moves across the surface of Earth in lakes,
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

streams, and rivers. It soaks into the ground, or

organisms take it in. The cycle continues when
the water is released again. Key Concept Check
11. Specify What forms
does water take in the water
cycle?
Precipitation
Condensation

Evaporation

Transpiration and
Exhalation

Ocean
Lake
Visual Check
Transpiration and
Exhalation 12. Specify Circle the two
processes in which water
vapor condenses and falls as
rain or snow.

Reading Essentials Interactions of Living Things 159

 Math Skills Oxygen Cycle
Like water, oxygen cycles through the environment.
When two ratios form a Oxygen is another example of matter that is important to
proportion, the cross the survival of many organisms. You take in oxygen when
products are equal. This
you breathe. Your blood carries oxygen to all parts of your
method can be used to solve
problems such as the body. Oxygen is also part of many molecules, such as sugars,
following: If there are that are important to life.
48 hours in 2 days, how The figure below shows the oxygen cycle in a rain forest.
many hours are there in
Plants in a rain forest release large amounts of oxygen. The
5 days?
oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis. The oxygen
48 hr
_____ n hr
2 days
= _____
5 days from these producers enters the atmosphere.
a. Find the cross products. Consumers, such as monkeys and parrots, take in oxygen
48 × 5 = n × 2 when they breathe. When these organisms exhale, they
240 = 2n release carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, which is a by-
b. Solve for n by dividing product of cellular respiration, contains oxygen. Producers,
both sides by 2. such as plants, take in the carbon dioxide, and the cycle
240
___ 2n continues.
2
= __
2
n = 120 hours
13. Use Proportions
Your heart beats an average
of 84 times per minute. How A
many times will it beat in Photosynthesis Oxygen
5 minutes?

Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

B
Reading Check Cellular
respiration
14. Identify What Carbon dioxide
organisms are part of the
oxygen cycle?

B
A
Cellular
Oxygen respiration
Visual Check Photosynthesis

15. Specify What do the

consumers in this image
release to the atmosphere?

160 Interactions of Living Things Reading Essentials

 Carbon Cycle
Carbon is a basic building block of all living things. It is
part of molecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Carbon is also almost everywhere on Earth, even in
nonliving things.
Producers use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. This
removes carbon from the atmosphere. Consumers eat these
producers and release carbon back into the environment as
a waste product. Human activities, such as the burning of
fossil fuels, also add carbon to the atmosphere. Producers
again remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they
continue making food, and the cycle continues. The carbon
cycle is shown below. Reading Check
16. Specify Where is
Carbon compounds carbon in living organisms?
in atmosphere Combustion
Photosynthesis

Plants, certain Cellular

Photosynthesis
protists, and respiration
Cellular
bacteria on land
respiration
Decomposition
Cellular Visual Check
respiration 17. Distinguish What
processes add carbon
Animals compounds to the
atmosphere?
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Carbon
Plants, certain protists, Decomposition compounds
and bacteria in water in soil
Decomposition
CO2 in water Sediments

Fossil fuels

Reading Essentials Interactions of Living Things 161

Mini Glossary
consumer: an organism that cannot make its own food and food web: a model that shows several connected food chains
gets energy by eating other organisms
producer: an organism that changes the energy available in its
energy pyramid: a model that shows the amount of energy environment into food energy
available at each step of a food chain

food chain: a model of how energy flows in an ecosystem

through feeding relationships

1. Review the terms and their definitions in the Mini Glossary. Write a sentence that
explains how consumers depend on producers.

2. Identify the chemical process illustrated in the diagram. Write its name in the box.

Light energy from

the Sun

Chemical Process:
Water Carbon dioxide

Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Food energy

3. As energy travels through different organisms, the amount of energy that is available
decreases. Why?

What do you think

Reread the statements at the beginning of the Connect ED
lesson. Fill in the After column with an A if you Log on to ConnectED.mcgraw-hill.com
agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. and access your textbook to find this END OF
Did you change your mind? lesson’s resources. LESSON

162 Interactions of Living Things Reading Essentials