Differences between two flows

[grayfalcon89]

I came across types of two flows in my advanced biology book today. It's part of the concepts in exam but our teacher really didn't go over it so I'm asking here to see if I understood it.

 

Two flows are the flow of chemical nutrients and the flow of energy within an ecosystem. Flow of chemical nutrients are like oxygen, water, and carbon oxide while flow of energy is basically "energy." The difference between those two is that while flow of chemical nutrients is constantly going on as "cycle," the flow of energy doesn't do that. Like say energy A goes into the ecosystem. It starts from plants to the animals and after animals used it, it goes out of ecosystem with energy B coming out simultaneously.

 

Is this right? I'm not sure about the flow of energy part even though this is something similar (I think) what the book said. Thanks.

[Skye]

Yeah that's right. Chemical reactions often release energy as heat, and since heat energy can't converted to other forms of energy by organisms it is lost. So energy is constantly being bled off as heat.

 

The energy that flows from one organism to another is energy 'stored' in chemical bonds. This starts with photosynthesis, with light energy being captured and then transfered and stored by binding smaller molecules together into sugars. Sugars can be broken down again, and these reactions are coupled to the production of molecules like ATP, and then the ATP is broken down and this reaction coupled to many reactions in the cell. Animals can eat plants and absorb the sugars, and then break them down to produce ATP for themselves. In this way they are absorbing the energy that the plant absorbed from sun light.