The Sun is the principal source of energy input to biological systems.

A food chain is a chart that shows the flow of energy (food) from one organism to the next, beginning
with a producer (e.g. mahogany tree caterpillar song bird hawk).
A food web is a network of interconnected food chains showing the energy flow through part of an
ecosystem.
A producer is an organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy from sunlight,
through photosynthesis.
A consumer is an organism that gets its energy by feeding on other organisms.
A herbivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating plants.
A carnivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.
A decomposer is an organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic matter.
An ecosystem is a unit containing all of the organisms and their environment, interacting together, in a
given area (e.g. a decomposing log or a lake).

A trophic level is a feeding level within a food web (e.g. the producers are usually on the first trophic
level, herbivores are usually on the second, carnivores are usually on the third, etc). On average, only
about 10% of energy is passed on from one trophic level to another. The rest is lost; for example,
through respiration, heat loss, faeces/urine, reproduction and/or non-predatory death (where the
organism dies but is not eaten by another).
90% of energy is lost between each trophic level. This is why food chains rarely have more than four
trophic levels. If there were more than four, the consumers at the top level would have to eat a very
large amount of food in order to survive (or there would have to be a very large amount of energy
present in the ecosystem).

The carbon cycle refers to the flow of carbon through different parts of the Earth system, including the
air, ground, plants, animals and fossil fuels.
An example of a carbon cycle would be:

1. Plants photosynthesise, taking carbon in the form of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
locking it into the carbohydrate glucose. (They also respire, giving out carbon dioxide; but they take in
much more than they give out.)

2. Herbivores eat these plants, which they digest. Then they respire, giving off carbon dioxide to the
environment. Carnivores may also eat these animals, which passes the carbon dioxide onto them.
They themselves then respire, also giving off carbon dioxide to the environment.

3. These animals also excrete material which contains carbon. This material is then digested by
decomposers. The decomposers also respire, also releasing carbon dioxide.

4. When animals die, their remains may be either eaten by scavengers (for example, crows) or digested
by decomposers. Both scavengers and decomposers respire, giving off more carbon dioxide.

5. In certain conditions both animal and plant remains may become fossilised, eventually forming
carbon-based fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas).

6. These fossil fuels and plant material (wood) may later be combusted - releasing still more carbon
dioxide into the environment.