What is one major difference between how matter moves through an ecosystem and how energy moves through an ecosystem?

Answer 1

Unlike the one way flow of energy, matter is recycled within and between ecosystems.

Answer 2

All energy for life on Earth comes from the Sun. There is no way to return that energy, so energy "flows" and some is lost to organisms. Matter on the other hand cannot enter or leave the biosphere, so it cycles. The water you drink today is the same water that some other creature drank 10,000 years ago. Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Phosphorous are constatnly reused. Energy is not.

energy has a "one way ticket" through an ecosystem while matter can continually be recycled through an ecosystem.

Energy cannot be recycled; it moves one way. Matter, however, is recycled throughout many ecosystems.

Answer 3

Matter is recycled: living things die and decay, for example. The nutrients living things need are obtained from plants or organisms that eat plants. The food chain thing. Energy flows on a one way street - the sun's energy is used by plants, then food chain again, and finally excess energy is radiated by the earth into space. There's no way to store and re-use energy as there is for matter.

Answer 4

"Unlike the one-way flow of energy, matter is recycled within and between ecosystems."

Unlike the one-way flow of energy, matter is recycled within and between ecosystems.

Answer 5

Energy flows through an ecosystem in one direction, from the sun or in organic compounds to autotrophs (producers) and then to various heterotrophs (consumers).

Answer 6

Energy flows through the terrarium ecosystem, while chemicals cycle within it.