Flow of Energy
Food Chain
In its habitat pandas are primary consumers. As you can see in the picture the sun is the energy source that gives energy to the bamboo trees and allows them to grow. The bamboo is eaten by the giant panda, it also receives energy from the bamboo. The giant panda, is a meal for a snow leopard who receives energy from the panda.
Giant Panda Food Web
In the food web shown above you can see that the giant panda is a primary consumer, if you look at the "man" you can see that he is a tertiary consumer. Man pose the biggest threat to pandas.
Energy Pyramid
- The producer-- in this case the bamboo-- brings energy from nonliving sources into the community.
- The primary consumer-- the panda-- eats the producer, this usually makes the primary consumer an herbivore, but pandas are carnivores.
- The secondary consumer-- the snow leopard-- eats the primary consumer, making them a carnivore.
- The energy pyramid shows the amount of useful energy that enters each level — chemical energy in the form of food — and how it decreases as it is used by the organisms in that level.
Why cycling of major nutrients important?
- The cycling of major nutrients is important for pandas, because it allows carbon to be absorbed by the bamboo and other plants in order to create oxygen for the panda to breathe.
- This also includes the water cycle which plays a very important role in a panda's life, if water was not available then bamboo could not grow and the panda could not stay hydrated.
- Plants also gather nitrogen from the atmosphere (we can't use it in this form), the Nitrogen is converted into Nitrates which plants use and then released back into the atmosphere as nitrogen.
- Phosphorous is absorbed by the bamboo and the other plants.
- The cycling of these nutrients is also important because the decomposers can help decompose the nutrient back to the soil, to help things grow. Without the cycle then nitrogen and other nutrients would become limiting factors