Name: _________________________________

Quiz: Cycles of Matter

Use the food web to answer numbers 1-3.

1. The food web above shows the interaction between organisms in a forest biome. Which
of the following is a producer?

a. Goat
b. Owl
c. Tree
d. Rabbit

2. Which of the following animals is an omnivore?

a. Rabbit
b. Jackal
c. Owl
d. Snake

3. Top consumers in an ecosystem have little to no predators. Which of the following are
top consumers?

a. Lion and Snake

b. Owl and Kite
c. Wild Cat and Jackal
d. Mouse and Rabbit
Use the energy pyramid below to answer 4.

4. In which level of the energy pyramid is there the least amount of energy available?

a. Tertiary consumers
b. Secondary consumers
c. Primary consumers
d. Primary producers
e.

5. The pyramid above represents the amount of energy available to organisms at each level of
the community. How much energy is transferred at each step?

a. 100%
b. 10%
c. 90%
d. 50%

6. At each stage of energy transfer in an ecosystem, some energy is lost to the environment. In
what form is energy lost to the environment?

a. Heat
b. ATP
c. Consumption
d. Photosynthesis

7. In any ecosystem, there are always more:

a. Herbivores than carnivores

b. Predators than prey
c. Animals than plants
d. Consumers than producers
8. Virtually all plants are autotrophic. But there are no autotrophic animals or fungi. What can you
infer about autotrophic organisms?

a. They can move around on their own

b. They are at the top of the food chain
c. They can make their own energy
d. They reproduce slowly

9. In one cubic meter of the ocean, photosynthetic plankton produces 80,000 calories of energy
each year. How many calories of energy are available in the bodies of the creatures that eat that
plankton?

a. 80,000
b. 8,000
c. 800
d. 80

10. In most food chains, all of the energy originally comes from:

a. Sun
b. Dead matter that’s been recycled by decomposers
c. Heat from deep within the Earth
d. Plants

11. In a marine food chain, small fish eat plankton, big fish eat small fish, and sharks eat big fish.
Which organism has the smallest population?

a. The plankton
b. The small fish
c. The big fish
d. The sharks

12. How are organisms recycled in the environment?

a. Decomposition
b. Respiration
c. Water Cycle
d. Photosynthesis