Australian Year 10 Biology Practice Test 2025 – The Comprehensive Guide to Exam Success!

Energy flow in an ecosystem follows a specific pathway that reflects the roles of different organisms within that system. Producers, such as plants and algae, convert sunlight into chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. This stored energy is then transferred to consumers when they eat these producers. Consumers are organisms that rely on other living things for their energy and nutrients.

Once consumers die or produce waste, the energy they accumulated is passed on to decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, which break down organic material and recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem. This process ensures that energy flows in a linear trajectory: from producers to consumers and finally to decomposers.

Understanding this flow is crucial as it highlights the interconnectedness of different organisms and emphasizes the importance of each group in sustaining the energy balance within an ecosystem. This pathway is fundamental to the study of ecology and illustrates how energy moves through the different trophic levels of an ecosystem.