TedTest

From the Ted Talk by John C. Moore and Eric Berlow: Dead stuff The secret ingredient in our food chain

Unscramble the Blue Letters

If someone called you scum, you'd probably be offended, but satifllnicceiy, they might not be far off. Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? You might say it comes from plants, animals, or even fungi, but you'd probably rather not think about the rotting organisms and poop that feed those plants, animals, and fgnui. So really, you and most of the matter in your body are just two or three degrees of separation from things like pond scum. All species in an ecosystem, from the creatures in a coral reef to the fish in a lake to the lions on the savannah, are directly or iltendircy nourished by dead stuff. Most of the organic matter in our bodies, if we trace it back far enough, comes from CO2 and water through photosynthesis. Plants use the egnery from sunlight to transform carbon dxdiioe and weatr from the environment into glucose and oxygen. That glucose is then transformed into more comlepx organic molecules to form leaves, stems, roots, fruit, and so on. The energy stored in these organic molecules supports the food chains with which we're familiar. You've probably seen illustrations like this or this. These geren food chains start with living plants at their base. But in real-life terrestrial ecosystems, less than 10% of plant matter is eaten while it's still alive. What about the other 90? Well, just look at the gorund on an autumn day. Living panlts shed dead body parts: flalen leaves, broken bcarhens, and even underground roots. Many plants are lucky enough to go their whole lives without being eaten, eventually dying and laievng remains. All of these ueanten, udegsnietd, and dead plant prtas, that 90% of terrestrial plant matter? That becomes detritus, the base of what we call the brown food chain, which looks more like this. What happens to plants also happens to all other organisms up the food chain: some are eaten alive, but most are eaten only when they're dead and rotting. And all along this food ciahn, lvniig things shed organic matter and eexpl digestive waste before dying and leaving their remains to dceay. All that dateh sounds grim, right? But it's not. All drtuiets is ultimately consumed by microbes and other savernegcs, so it actually forms the base of the bowrn food chain that supports many other osnmragis, iclndunig us. Scientists are learning that this detritus is an unexpectedly huge energy socrue, fueling most natural ecosystems. But the interactions within an ecosystem are even more complex than that. What a food chain really rretnepses is a single paathwy of energy flow. And within any ecosystem, many of these flows are linked together to form a rich network of interactions, or food web, with dead matter supporting that network at every step. The resulting food web is so connected that almost every species is no more than two degrees from detritus, even us humans. You probably don't eat rotting things, poop, or pond scum directly, but your food seoucrs probably do. Many animals we eat either feed directly on detritus themselves, like pork, poultry, mushrooms, shellfish, or catfish and other bottom feeders, or they are fed animal by-products. So, if you're thinking nuarte is full of waste, you're right. But one organism's garbage is another's gold, and all that rottnig dead stuff ultimately provides the energy that nourishes us and most of life on Earth, as it pasess through the food web. Now that's some food for thought.

Open Cloze

If someone called you scum, you'd probably be offended, but ______________, they might not be far off. Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? You might say it comes from plants, animals, or even fungi, but you'd probably rather not think about the rotting organisms and poop that feed those plants, animals, and _____. So really, you and most of the matter in your body are just two or three degrees of separation from things like pond scum. All species in an ecosystem, from the creatures in a coral reef to the fish in a lake to the lions on the savannah, are directly or __________ nourished by dead stuff. Most of the organic matter in our bodies, if we trace it back far enough, comes from CO2 and water through photosynthesis. Plants use the ______ from sunlight to transform carbon _______ and _____ from the environment into glucose and oxygen. That glucose is then transformed into more _______ organic molecules to form leaves, stems, roots, fruit, and so on. The energy stored in these organic molecules supports the food chains with which we're familiar. You've probably seen illustrations like this or this. These _____ food chains start with living plants at their base. But in real-life terrestrial ecosystems, less than 10% of plant matter is eaten while it's still alive. What about the other 90? Well, just look at the ______ on an autumn day. Living ______ shed dead body parts: ______ leaves, broken ________, and even underground roots. Many plants are lucky enough to go their whole lives without being eaten, eventually dying and _______ remains. All of these _______, __________, and dead plant _____, that 90% of terrestrial plant matter? That becomes detritus, the base of what we call the brown food chain, which looks more like this. What happens to plants also happens to all other organisms up the food chain: some are eaten alive, but most are eaten only when they're dead and rotting. And all along this food _____, ______ things shed organic matter and _____ digestive waste before dying and leaving their remains to _____. All that _____ sounds grim, right? But it's not. All ________ is ultimately consumed by microbes and other __________, so it actually forms the base of the _____ food chain that supports many other _________, _________ us. Scientists are learning that this detritus is an unexpectedly huge energy ______, fueling most natural ecosystems. But the interactions within an ecosystem are even more complex than that. What a food chain really __________ is a single _______ of energy flow. And within any ecosystem, many of these flows are linked together to form a rich network of interactions, or food web, with dead matter supporting that network at every step. The resulting food web is so connected that almost every species is no more than two degrees from detritus, even us humans. You probably don't eat rotting things, poop, or pond scum directly, but your food _______ probably do. Many animals we eat either feed directly on detritus themselves, like pork, poultry, mushrooms, shellfish, or catfish and other bottom feeders, or they are fed animal by-products. So, if you're thinking ______ is full of waste, you're right. But one organism's garbage is another's gold, and all that _______ dead stuff ultimately provides the energy that nourishes us and most of life on Earth, as it ______ through the food web. Now that's some food for thought.

Solution

pathway
indirectly
expel
undigested
represents
fallen
decay
sources
plants
passes
uneaten
dioxide
living
death
leaving
energy
chain
water
including
source
complex
scavengers
nature
branches
scientifically
green
brown
detritus
parts
ground
fungi
rotting
organisms

Original Text

If someone called you scum, you'd probably be offended, but scientifically, they might not be far off. Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? You might say it comes from plants, animals, or even fungi, but you'd probably rather not think about the rotting organisms and poop that feed those plants, animals, and fungi. So really, you and most of the matter in your body are just two or three degrees of separation from things like pond scum. All species in an ecosystem, from the creatures in a coral reef to the fish in a lake to the lions on the savannah, are directly or indirectly nourished by dead stuff. Most of the organic matter in our bodies, if we trace it back far enough, comes from CO2 and water through photosynthesis. Plants use the energy from sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water from the environment into glucose and oxygen. That glucose is then transformed into more complex organic molecules to form leaves, stems, roots, fruit, and so on. The energy stored in these organic molecules supports the food chains with which we're familiar. You've probably seen illustrations like this or this. These green food chains start with living plants at their base. But in real-life terrestrial ecosystems, less than 10% of plant matter is eaten while it's still alive. What about the other 90? Well, just look at the ground on an autumn day. Living plants shed dead body parts: fallen leaves, broken branches, and even underground roots. Many plants are lucky enough to go their whole lives without being eaten, eventually dying and leaving remains. All of these uneaten, undigested, and dead plant parts, that 90% of terrestrial plant matter? That becomes detritus, the base of what we call the brown food chain, which looks more like this. What happens to plants also happens to all other organisms up the food chain: some are eaten alive, but most are eaten only when they're dead and rotting. And all along this food chain, living things shed organic matter and expel digestive waste before dying and leaving their remains to decay. All that death sounds grim, right? But it's not. All detritus is ultimately consumed by microbes and other scavengers, so it actually forms the base of the brown food chain that supports many other organisms, including us. Scientists are learning that this detritus is an unexpectedly huge energy source, fueling most natural ecosystems. But the interactions within an ecosystem are even more complex than that. What a food chain really represents is a single pathway of energy flow. And within any ecosystem, many of these flows are linked together to form a rich network of interactions, or food web, with dead matter supporting that network at every step. The resulting food web is so connected that almost every species is no more than two degrees from detritus, even us humans. You probably don't eat rotting things, poop, or pond scum directly, but your food sources probably do. Many animals we eat either feed directly on detritus themselves, like pork, poultry, mushrooms, shellfish, or catfish and other bottom feeders, or they are fed animal by-products. So, if you're thinking nature is full of waste, you're right. But one organism's garbage is another's gold, and all that rotting dead stuff ultimately provides the energy that nourishes us and most of life on Earth, as it passes through the food web. Now that's some food for thought.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
pond scum	2
dead stuff	2
organic matter	2
organic molecules	2
food chains	2
living plants	2
brown food	2
food chain	2
food web	2

Important Words

alive
animal
animals
autumn
base
bodies
body
bottom
branches
broken
brown
call
called
carbon
catfish
chain
chains
complex
connected
consumed
coral
creatures
day
dead
death
decay
degrees
detritus
digestive
dioxide
dying
earth
eat
eaten
ecosystem
ecosystems
energy
environment
eventually
expel
fallen
familiar
fed
feed
feeders
fish
flow
flows
food
form
forms
fruit
fueling
full
fungi
garbage
glucose
gold
green
grim
ground
huge
humans
illustrations
including
indirectly
interactions
lake
learning
leaves
leaving
life
linked
lions
lives
living
lucky
matter
microbes
molecules
mushrooms
natural
nature
network
nourished
nourishes
offended
organic
organisms
oxygen
parts
passes
pathway
photosynthesis
plant
plants
pond
poop
pork
poultry
reef
remains
represents
resulting
rich
roots
rotting
savannah
scavengers
scientifically
scientists
scum
separation
shed
shellfish
single
sounds
source
sources
species
start
stems
step
stored
stuff
sunlight
supporting
supports
terrestrial
thinking
thought
trace
transform
transformed
ultimately
underground
undigested
uneaten
unexpectedly
waste
water
web