food chain, in ecology, the sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism. Food chains intertwine locally into a food web because most organisms consume more than one type of animal or plant.
What is a food chain short answer?
A food chain describes how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem. At the basic level there are plants that produce the energy, then it moves up to higher-level organisms like herbivores. After that when carnivores eat the herbivores, energy is transferred from one to the other.
What is food chain and example?
Every living thing—from one-celled algae to giant blue whales—needs food to survive. Each food chain is a possible pathway that energy and nutrients can follow through the ecosystem. For example, grass produces its own food from sunlight. A rabbit eats the grass. A fox eats the rabbit.
What is food chain and food web in biology?
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.
What is the definition of food chain in biology? – Related Questions
What is food chain explain with diagram?
The food chain is a linear sequence of organisms where nutrients and energy is transferred from one organism to the other. This occurs when one organism consumes another organism. It begins with the producer organism, follows the chain and ends with the decomposer organism.
What is the structure of a food chain?
What is the difference between food chain and food web give example each?
While a food chain follows a singular path of energy from a producer to a top predator, food webs illustrate the ways different animals are interconnected and interact in a food chain. For instance, there are several predators that can eat a mouse or rabbit.
What are the 4 food webs?
The four levels in this food chain are primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and finally decomposers or phytoremediators.
Level 1: Plants (producers) Level 2: Animals that eat plants or herbivores (primary consumers) Level 3: Animals that eat herbivores (secondary consumers, carnivores) Level 4: Animals that eat carnivores (tertiary consumers, carnivores)
How do food chain and food web differ from each other?
A food chain is a basic network that shows the linear flow of nutrients and energy from one trophic level to another. A food web is a multitude of food chains that are interconnected at many trophic levels. Furthermore, a food web accurately represents all the various food chains that exist in an ecosystem.
Who created the food chain?
Food chains were first introduced by the Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 10th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept.
What are the types of food chains?
There are two types of food chains: the grazing food chain, beginning with autotrophs, and the detrital food chain, beginning with dead organic matter (Smith & Smith 2009).
Where does energy for a food chain come from?
The vast majority of energy that exists in food webs originates from the sun and is converted (transformed) into chemical energy by the process of photosynthesis in plants. A small proportion of this chemical energy is transformed directly into heat when compounds are broken down during respiration in plants.
How do food chains flow?
Primary producers use energy from the sun to produce their own food in the form of glucose, and then primary producers are eaten by primary consumers who are in turn eaten by secondary consumers, and so on, so that energy flows from one trophic level, or level of the food chain, to the next.
Why is food chain important in an ecosystem?
Food chains are important because they show the intricate relationships in ecosystems. They can reveal how each organism depends on someone else for survival. Food chains also display what happens when a problem occurs and a producer or consumer is lost. Entire communities can collapse.
Who is top of the food chain?
“Apex” is a Latin term that means peak or top. Apex predators, also known as alpha predators, are the animals at the top of the food chain and do not have any natural predators in their environment. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning they occupy the highest trophic levels.
Where is human in food chain?
Humans are said to be at the top of the food chain because they eat plants and animals of all kinds but are not eaten consistently by any animals. The human food chain starts with plants. Plants eaten by humans are called fruits and vegetables, and when they eat these plants, humans are primary consumers.
What are animals called in a food chain?
Plants and algae (plant-like organisms that live in water) are able to make their own food using energy from the sun. These organisms are called producers because they produce their own food. Some animals eat these producers. These animals are called consumers because they consume something else to get their food.
What eats humans in the food chain?
Although humans can be attacked by many kinds of non-human animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet and actively hunt and kill humans. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved lions, tigers, leopards, polar bears, and large crocodilians.
Can a human beat a lion?
But to that question, the answer is “no.” If you change the question to: “Can a single, average-sized, athletic man armed with a primitive spear and minimal training defeat a lion, tiger, or bear in a fight?” the answer would be yes.He can, but it’s certainly not assured.A tremendous amount of luck would be required.
Why do animals fear humans?
It may come as a surprise that many animals, including some apex predators, are terrified of humans. According to scientists, it’s because we’re big and loud and ‘novel’ to them. And so to protect themselves, they try to avoid us as much as possible.
