AAAS: THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT: FLOW OF MATTER AND ENERGY - The chemical elements that make up the molecules of living things pass through food webs and are combined and recombined in different ways
The chemical elements that make up the molecules of living things pass through food webs and are combined and recombined in different ways. At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat. Continual input of energy from sunlight keeps the process going.