Tag: food chain and food web

Apex of the food pyramid is the tip of the food pyramid. In the given food pyramid, peacock eats snakes which eat hoppers which in turn eats leaves of the plants. Hence, the peacock is the apex of food pyramid and plants are the base of the food pyramid.  Hoppers are primary consumer and snakes are secondary consumers of the given food pyramid.

Food web is interconnected food chains in an ecosystem. Extinction of a species in a food chain is compensated in food web. When a particular species in a food chain becomes extinct, it is compensated by the remaining generalized species at the same trophic level.

In a food chain, the carnivores eat up herbivores, or in other words, the secondary consumers consume the primary consumers. So, we can say that if the number of carnivores decreases, the number of herbivores like deer go on decreasing as they will not get eaten up. So, removal of most of the carnivores will result in an increased population of deer. 

Food web is constituted by various interlinked food chains in a community. Networking of different food chains in an ecosystem provides stability to the ecosystem. Due to interconnecting food chains, relationships between the species remain constant over relatively long periods of time.

In an ecosystem, there are various trophic levels. Each trophic level consists of a particular organisms. It consists of producers, consumers, decomposers. The first trophic level consists of producers such as plants. The second trophic level consists of primary consumers. The third trophic level consists of secondary consumers. There are certain organisms which occupy more than one trophic level in the same ecosystem at the same time. An example include sparrow. It feeds upon grains. Hence, it is called as primary consumer and occupies second trophic level. It also feeds upon insects. Hence, it is called as secondary consumer and occupies third trophic level.

There are various trophic levels in a food chain. The first trophic level consists of primary producers such as plant. The second trophic level consists of herbivores or primary consumers. The third trophic level consists of carnivores or secondary consumers. Decomposers are present at the top trophic level. Phytoplankton occupies the first trophic level in an ecosystem. The zooplankton feeding upon phytoplankton occupies the second trophic level in an ecosystem. Aquatic animals occupy any trophic level in an ecosystem. Aquatic animals such as zooplankton occupies first trophic level. Aquatic animals such as small fish occupies second trophic level. Aquatic animals such as large fish occupies third trophic level. The aquatic plants occupy first trophic level. 

A web of interconnected food chains is known as food web.

Trophic means food. The animals linked in the food chain form various trophic levels. A food chain is a series of organisms that eat and get eaten.

The amount of energy at each trophic level decreases as it moves through an ecosystem. As little as 10% of the energy at any trophic level is transferred to the next level; the rest is lost largely through metabolic processes as heat. Food webs illustrate how energy flows through ecosystems, including how efficiently organisms acquire and use it. Autotrophs, producers in food webs, can be photosynthetic or chemosynthetic. They use light energy to synthesize their own food, while chemoautotrophs use inorganic molecules. Heterotrophs cannot synthesize their own energy, but must obtain it from autotrophs in food webs.