Lesson 1.03 The Energy Cycle

• Introduction
• Learn
• Try It
• Task

Introduction

Energy is essential to all living organisms in an environment. Living things depend on energy to carry out all biological processes. Biological activities such as breathing, maintaining body temperature, reproducing, and hunting for food all depend on energy and energy conversions. In order for all organisms in a community to get the energy that they need, energy must be cycled throughout the environment.

In Lesson 1.02, you examined the different forms of energy, real world examples, and how energy is conserved through energy conversions - one form of energy being transferred to another form. In this lesson, you will learn about the different abiotic and biotic parts of the energy cycle and how energy cycles through the different parts of an ecosystem. You will specifically learn how light energy is passed from one part of the energy cycle to the other.