4.6 Energy and Substances in Food Chains

Bush Grass = Producer
Impala = Primary Consumer
Leopard = Secondary Consumer
Lion = Tertiary Consumer

- Producer: converts light energy into chemical energy. The chemical energy takes the form of organic molecules including: carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. These molecules, which are called food, are composed of:
C-H
C-O
C-C
O-H
C-N
bonds.
- These bonds all represent energy
- Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen are the substances/matter

- As bush grass carries out photosynthesis it creates the organic molecules which are the substances and contain the energy which was fixed from sunlight, now in the form of chemical energy.
- The impala consumes this for: respiration, growth and life processes
- When the leopard eats the impala, these molecules are passed on and re-organized into leopard form, and so on...

Substances/Matter and the energy which is in the bonds between the elements are passed from each stage in the food chain.