Food chains and food webs describe the feeding relationships between species in a biotic community In other words, they show the transfer of material and energy from one species to another within an ecosystem. As usually put, an organism is connected to another organism for which it is a source of food energy and material by an arrow representing the direction of biomass transfer.
Organisms are grouped into trophic levels based on how many links they are removed from the primary producers. Primary producers, or autotrophs, are species capable of producing complex organic substances (essentially "food") from an energy source and inorganic materials. These organisms are typically photosynthetic plants, bacteria or algae, but in rare cases, like those organisms forming the base of deep-sea vent food webs, can be chemotrophic. All organisms that eat the autotrophs are called heterotrophs. They get their energy by eating the producers.
A food chain describes a single pathway that energy and nutrients may follow in an ecosystem. There is one organism per trophic level, and trophic levels are therefore easily defined. They usually start with a primary producer and end with a top predator.
Here is an example of five organisms in a single food chain: phytoplankton to copepod to fish to squid to seal to orca..
A food chain can have as few as three links. For example, a plant being eaten by a herbivore, which is then eaten by a predator.
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The number of links in a food chain is limited by the amount of available energy. As energy is transferred up the food chain, only about 10% is passed on to the next level. This inefficiency limits the number of trophic levels that can be sustained in a food chain.
the monarch butterfly is one of the first links of the food chain.
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There are colored links in three places on the chain. It helps to clean the chain with brake cleaner to find them.There are colored links in three places on the chain. It helps to clean the chain with brake cleaner to find them.
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Cut one chain into two 2-link sections and the other chain into two 4-link sections. Then, connect one 4-link section to each 2-link section to form a circular chain with 12 links.
Yes. See the Related Links for more information.
because of the amount of energy lost between trophic levels
The lowest organism on a food chain is the primary producer which occupies the first trophic level
The greatest number of links in a food chain would depend on the complexity of the ecosystem, but typically ranges from 4 to 6 links. This includes producers (plants), primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores that eat herbivores), tertiary consumers (carnivores that eat other carnivores), and sometimes quaternary consumers (carnivores that eat tertiary consumers).