Ace the Ohio 5th Grade Science OST 2026 – Blast Off to Success with Our Ultimate Practice Test!

Energy in ecosystems starts with producers capturing sunlight and turning it into chemical energy stored in sugars through photosynthesis. This chemical energy becomes the fuel that supports all other organisms, as consumers eat producers or other consumers to obtain energy. Because energy flows in one direction—from sunlight to producers to consumers—with some energy lost as heat at each step, producers form the base of the food chain.

The correct description fits this idea: producers use sunlight to create chemical energy, establishing the starting point of the food chain. The other statements mix up who captures energy, or what energy is used for, or what decomposers do, so they don’t describe how energy moves through an ecosystem.