Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

This chapter consists of topics like Cycle of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems - Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. etc.