Transcript Oxygen Cycles and the Food Chain

Oxygen Cycles and
The Food Chain
Unit 2: Basic Plant Science
20 in 10 - PLANTS!!!
• Label a piece of paper 1-20
• In addition to consumption, plants serve other
purposes as well…
• Come up with twenty items that you have
used in the last several weeks that were made
from or had plant products as one of the
ingredients.
The Food Chain
• Who loves to eat!?!
• What is your favorite food?
• Who knows what the food chain is or has seen
a diagram of the food chain before?
• Do you know what is at the basis of the food
chain?
The Food Chain
• Plants are the basis of the food chain for all
living things.
• Plants are essential to life on earth.
The Food Chain
• The food chain can be divided into three
categories:
– Consumers
• Can not produce their own food so must eat other
organisms for energy.
– Producers
• Produce their own food. Like Plants!
– Decomposers
• Eat decaying matter - dead plants and animals and in
the process they break them down and decompose
them. When that happens, they release nutrients and
mineral salts back into the soil - which then will be used
by plants!
OXYGEN!!!
• We breathe in oxygen
– The oxygen is absorbed into our blood cells
– It goes through our body
– It is used up
– The leftovers are then converted to CO2 (carbon
dioxide) and released
• Plants provide the oxygen
we breathe.
OXYGEN
• Plants balance the amount of oxygen and
carbon dioxide in the air through two
processes:
– Transpiration
– Respiration
• What if the elements were not balanced?
Photosynthesis
• Transpiration is a result of photosynthesis by
which plants produce oxygen as a byproduct.
• Photosynthesis:
– The process by which plants use light to produce
food for themselves.
• We will discuss this topic further later….
Transpiration & Respiration
• Transpiration:
– the process of releasing water vapor
containing oxygen in exchange for carbon
dioxide.
– Think of “perspiration” in humans! Sweat!
• Respiration:
– the exact opposite of photosynthesis and
transpiration
– Respiration is the process of using oxygen
and producing carbon dioxide.
– The oxygen is used to breakdown and use
food resulting in the release of carbon
dioxide, no light is required therefore this
process occurs 24 hours a day
The Oxygen Cycle
• Plants carry out minimal respiration
• BUT animals and humans respire with every
breath
• When we respire, plants take in the carbon
dioxide and convert it to oxygen which is then
released.
• This entire process is called the Oxygen Cycle!
• What does it look like?
The Oxygen Cycle
ACTIVITY
• Create:
– A chart of the Oxygen Cycle
• Show the interaction between plants and humans
– A food chain including: (label each)
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A decomposer
A producer
A primary consumer
A secondary consumer (eats the primary consumer)