BIO2242 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Food Quality, Primary Producers, Osteichthyes
Lecture 6 – Vertebrate Feeding Patterns
Eltonian Pyramid
• Biomass decreases with increasing trophic level
o Assimilation efficiency
o Respiration
o Primary producer has largest biomass
Plant Material as food
• Food quality
o Low quality food (structural plant foods)
o Must eat a lot of it
o Low assimilation efficiency
• Vegetation
o Difficult to digest
o Slow to assimilate
• Fruits, nectar
o Necar, high in quality
o Patchily distributed
o Easier to digest
o More rapidly assimilated
Animal Material as Food
• Food quality
o High quality of food
o High assimilation efficiency
• Animals
o Easy to digest
o Rapid to assimilate
o Can be difficult to ingest
▪ Locate
▪ Capture
• Invertebrates
o Protective exoskeleton (insects)
• Vertebrates
o Exposed flesh
Digestive Tract
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
