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A food web is all the food chains that make up an ecosystem from producers to consumers to top predators. But here's a question. What happens to the energy and minerals in the top predator?
Food Chains and Webs. A food chain outlines who eats whom. A food web is all of the food chains in an ecosystem. Each organism in an ecosystem occupies a specific trophic level or position in the food chain or web.
Food chains are simplistic and do not consider organisms that feed from multiple trophic levels like omnivores. On the other hand, food webs are interconnected networks of food chains, providing a more complex view of feeding relationships in ecosystems.
Food webs are able to flex and quickly bounce back to small changes in numbers. However big changes are more difficult for food webs to stabilise.
- Producers
- Primary Consumers
- Secondary Consumers
- Tertiary Consumers
Producers or autotrophs make up the first trophic level of the food chain. They prepare their own food from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water through photosynthesis. All other organisms in the ecosystem use them for food. Although green plants are the most abundant autotrophs on Earth, algae, phytoplanktons, and autotrophic bacterialiving in volc...
The second trophic level consists of herbivores that depend on producers for food. Cow, deer, elephant, and mice are primary consumers in the grassland ecosystem that consumes grasses, shrubs, and trees. In contrast, many fish and turtles are herbivores in the ocean ecosystem that eat algae and seagrass. In forests, sea urchins act as primary consu...
Secondary consumers are the organisms that reside on the third trophic level and depend on primary consumers for food. They can be carnivores or omnivores. Carnivores eat other animals, whereas omnivores eat both plants and animals. In a desert, a snake is a secondary consumer, eating mice. At the same time, in forests, sea otters are secondary con...
Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers and are found at the last or the fourth trophic level. In deserts, an owl or an eagle is a tertiary consumer eating a snake. There are more levels of consumers above the tertiary consumers. Apex consumers residing at the top of the food chain are organisms that feed on other consumers for food. Such organi...
Nov 15, 2023 · The rainforest food chain and web is complex and vast, as countless species each play out their own unique part. Every ecosystem has a food chain and web. This concept refers to an interconnected community of plants, animals, and insects, each contributing to the region’s biodiversity.
People also ask
How do food webs differ from food chains?
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A food chain is a one-way pathway that includes a linear network of linking organisms. In contrast, a food web shows a complex network where many food chains altogether show the interrelation of organisms. A trophic level depicts energy and nutrient flow in the ecosystem, generally in a sequence from producers, consumers and finally to decomposers.
