Food Chain

A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such
as grass or trees which use radiation from the Sun to make their food) and ending at apex
predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivores (like earthworms or woodlice),
or decomposer species (such as fungi or bacteria). A food chain also shows how the organisms are
related with each other by the food they eat. Each level of a food chain represents a different trophic
level. A food chain differs from a food web, because the complex network of different animals' feeding
relations are aggregated and the chain only follows a direct, linear pathway of one animal at a time.
Natural interconnections between food chains make it a food web. A common metric used to quantify
food web trophic structure is food chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the
number of links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web and the mean chain length of
an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all chains in a food web.

Food Chain Length

The food chain's length is a continuous variable that provides a measure of the passage of energy
and an index of ecological structure that increases in value counting progressively through the
linkages in a linear fashion from the lowest to the highest trophic (feeding) levels.
Food chains are often used in ecological modeling (such as a three species food chain). They are
simplified abstractions of real food webs, but complex in their dynamics and mathematical
implications.
Ecologists have formulated and tested hypotheses regarding the nature of ecological patterns
associated with food chain length, such as increasing length increasing with ecosystem size,
reduction of energy at each successive level, or the proposition that long food chain lengths are
unstable.[7] Food chain studies have an important role in ecotoxicology studies tracing the pathways
and bio magnification of environmental contaminants
Producers, such as plants, are organisms that utilize solar or chemical energy to synthesize starch.
All food chains must start with a producer. In the deep sea, food chains centered on hydrothermal
vents and cold seeps exist in the absence
of sunlight. Chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea use hydrogen sulfide and methane from
hydrothermal vents and cold seeps as an energy source (just as plants use sunlight) to produce
carbohydrates; they form the base of the food chain. Consumers are organisms that eat other
organisms. All organisms in a food chain, except the first organism, are consumers.
In a food chain, there is also reliable energy transfer through each stage. However, all the energy at
one stage of the chain is not absorbed by the organism at the next stage. The amount of energy from
one stage to another decrease.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_chain
Energy Flow Cycle

In ecology, energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow of energy through a food
chain, and is the focus of study in ecological energetics. In an ecosystem, ecologists seek
to quantify the relative importance of different component species and feeding relationships.
A general energy flow scenario follows:

Solar energy is fixed by the photoautotrophs, called primary producers, like green plants. Primary
consumers absorb most of the stored energy in the plant through digestion, and transform it into
the form of energy they need, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), through respiration. A part
of the energy received by primary consumers, herbivores, is converted to body heat (an effect of
respiration), which is radiated away and lost from the system. The loss of energy through body
heat is far greater in warm-blooded animals, which must eat much more frequently than those that
are cold-blooded. Energy loss also occurs in the expulsion of undigested food (egesta)
by excretion or regurgitation.
Secondary consumers, carnivores, then consume the primary consumers,
although omnivores also consume primary producers. Energy that had been used by the primary
consumers for growth and storage is thus absorbed into the secondary consumers through the
process of digestion. As with primary consumers, secondary consumers convert this energy into a
more suitable form (ATP) during respiration. Again, some energy is lost from the system, since
energy which the primary consumers had used for respiration and regulation of body temperature
cannot be utilized by the secondary consumers.
Tertiary consumers, which may or may not be apex predators, then consume the secondary
consumers, with some energy passed on and some lost, as with the lower levels of the food
chain.
A final link in the food chain are decomposers which break down the organic matter of the tertiary
consumers (or whichever consumer is at the top of the chain) and release nutrients into the soil.
They also break down plants, herbivores and carnivores that were not eaten by organisms higher
on the food chain, as well as the undigested food that is excreted by herbivores and
carnivores. Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi are decomposers, and play a pivotal role in
the nitrogen and carbon cycles.
The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and each time about 90% of the energy is
lost, with some being lost as heat into the environment (an effect of respiration) and some being lost
as incompletely digested food (egesta). Therefore, primary consumers get about 10% of the energy
produced by autotrophs, while secondary consumers get 1% and tertiary consumers get 0.1%. This
means the top consumer of a food chain receives the least energy, as a lot of the food chain's energy
has been lost between trophic levels. This loss of energy at each level limits typical food chains to
only four to six links.

Energy Transfer

Energy: The Ability to Do Work

I don't know about you, but when I don't have any energy, I find it hard to get anything done. This idea
actually applies to all energy, which scientists define as the ability to do work. Work itself varies, from
the sun warming us and providing light on a sunny afternoon to sound traveling across a playground.
So, more specifically, energy makes the things around us move or change.
We measure work in joules (J), calculated by multiplying force times distance. One joule of work is
equivalent to the force needed to lift an apple the distance of one meter into the air.

The Sun-Powered Universe

Almost all energy comes directly or indirectly from the sun (except nuclear energy, but we'll get to that
later). The sun gives off a specific type of energy, radiant energy, which is sometimes called solar
radiation.
The sun radiates both the light and the heat that allow life to thrive here on Earth. Plants, for example,
take in sunlight directly and use it as an energy source through a process called photosynthesis. The
Earth's atmosphere is also warmed by the sun, so our planet is the optimal temperature to sustain
life. Earth, like the porridge in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, is just right. Any closer to the sun and
it would be too hot; any farther away and it would be too cold.
One indirect use of the sun's energy is when humans eat plants and other plant-eating animals to fuel
our bodies. Another example is fossil fuels, coal, natural gas, and oil, so named because they are
the end product of animal and plant remains stewing deep beneath the Earth's surface for millions of
years. Even the gas we use to run our cars was once plant and animal life powered by the sun.

What is Energy Transfer?

The above examples of how the sun's energy directly and indirectly sustains life on Earth also show
how easily energy passes from one person, place, or thing to the next. When you eat an apple, you
take a product of the sun's energy, the apple, and use it to fuel your body. Likewise, the energy from
a rushing river generates electricity in a hydroelectric plant - and that electricity powers our light
bulbs, allowing us to stay up late and do even more work.
When energy passes from one place to another, we call that energy transfer. The Law of
Conservation of Energy states that no matter how hard we try, we can't create or destroy energy.
Energy either transfers from one object to another, like a quarterback throwing a football, or it can
change from one form of energy to another, like how we process food to fuel our bodies.

Transferring Energy
There are three main ways energy transfers from one place to another, or one object to another:
through the movement of objects, the movement of waves, and the movement of heat.
Matter is the scientific word for all the stuff in the universe, from water to air to Cheetos. When matter
is in motion, energy is, too. When a quarterback throws a football, the energy from his throw is
transferred to the ball. When wind blows in the trees, you can see the leaves and branches take on
the wind's energy.

Some energy, like sound, travels in waves through matter. The matter the waves travel through is
called a medium. Both moving matter and energy moving through a medium are
considered mechanical energy because they involve movement caused by or related to physical
forces.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/energy-transfer-examples-lesson-quiz.html
Energy Cycle in Living Things
A fascinating parallel between plant and animal life is in the use of tiny energy factories within the
cells to handle the energy transformation processes necessary for life. In plants, these energy
factories are called chloroplasts. They collect energy from the sun and use carbon dioxide and water
in the process called photosynthesis to produce sugars. Animals can make use of the sugars
provided by the plants in their own cellular energy factories, the mitochondria. These produce a
versatile energy currency in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This high-energy molecule
stores the energy we need to do just about everything we do.

The energy cycle for life is fueled by the Sun. The main end product for plants and animals is the
production of highly energetic molecules like ATP. These molecules store enough immediately
available energy to allow plants and animals to do their necessary work.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/enercyc.html
Water Cycle

The water cycle, also known as the hydrological cycle or the hydrologic cycle, describes the
continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on
Earth remains fairly constant over time but the partitioning of the water into the major reservoirs of
ice, fresh water, saline water and atmospheric water is variable depending on a wide range of climatic
variables. The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the
ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation,
infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. In doing so, the water goes through different forms:
liquid, solid (ice) and vapor.

The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. For instance,
when water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it
condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence climate.

The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies water which then replenishes the land with freshwater.
The flow of liquid water and ice transports minerals across the globe. It is also involved in reshaping
the geological features of the Earth, through processes including erosion and sedimentation. The
water cycle is also essential for the maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle
Food Web

A food web (or food cycle) is a natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation
(usually an image) of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is
consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories
called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs. To maintain their bodies, grow,
develop, and to reproduce, autotrophs produce organic matter from inorganic substances, including
both minerals and gases such as carbon dioxide. These chemical reactions require energy, which
mainly comes from the Sun and largely by photosynthesis, although a very small amount comes from
hydrothermal vents and hot springs. A gradient exists between trophic levels running from complete
autotrophs that obtain their sole source of carbon from the atmosphere, to mixotrophs (such as
carnivorous plants) that are autotrophic organisms that partially obtain organic matter from sources
other than the atmosphere, and complete heterotrophs that must feed to obtain organic matter. The
linkages in a food web illustrate the feeding pathways, such as where heterotrophs obtain organic
matter by feeding on autotrophs and other heterotrophs. The food web is a simplified illustration of the
various methods of feeding that links an ecosystem into a unified system of exchange. There are
different kinds of feeding relations that can be roughly divided into herbivory, carnivory, scavenging
and parasitism. Some of the organic matter eaten by heterotrophs, such as sugars, provides energy.
Autotrophs and heterotrophs come in all sizes, from microscopic to many tonnes - from cyanobacteria
to giant redwoods, and from viruses and bdellovibrio to blue whales.

Charles Elton pioneered the concept of food cycles, food chains, and food size in his classical 1927
book "Animal Ecology"; Elton's 'food cycle' was replaced by 'food web' in a subsequent ecological
text. Elton organized species into functional groups, which was the basis for Raymond Lindeman's
classic and landmark paper in 1942 on trophic dynamics. Lindeman emphasized the important role of
decomposer organisms in a trophic system of classification. The notion of a food web has a historical
foothold in the writings of Charles Darwin and his terminology, including an "entangled bank", "web of
life", "web of complex relations", and in reference to the decomposition actions of earthworms he
talked about "the continued movement of the particles of earth". Even earlier, in 1768 John Bruckner
described nature as "one continued web of life".
Food webs are limited representations of real ecosystems as they necessarily aggregate many
species into trophic species, which are functional groups of species that have the same predators and
prey in a food web. Ecologists use these simplifications in quantitative (or mathematical) models of
trophic or consumer-resource systems dynamics. Using these models they can measure and test for
generalized patterns in the structure of real food web networks. Ecologists have identified non-
random properties in the topographic structure of food webs. Published examples that are used in
meta analysis are of variable quality with omissions. However, the number of empirical studies on
community webs is on the rise and the mathematical treatment of food webs using network theory
had identified patterns that are common to all. Scaling laws, for example, predict a relationship
between the topology of food web predator-prey linkages and levels of species richness.

Food Interaction
Ecosystem process rates can be sensitive to changes in trophic structure and biodiversity. Linkages
in real food webs are far more complex than simplified trophic-levels suggest, but it currently remains
unclear how much of this complexity is needed to maintain ecosystem functioning. The goal of this
work is to identify modules within complex food webs that can be used to understand the effects of
changes in biodiversity on ecosystem processes. Results to date demonstrate the importance of
linkages between detritus and primary producer food webs, and they emphasize the importance of
studying functionally complete food webs.

DESCRIPTION YEAR CITATION

Networks are useful for visualization and
quantification of management actions that
will directly and indirectly alter ecosystem
services.
2017 Dee, L., S. Allesina, A. Bonn, A. Eklf, S.
D. Gaines, J. Hines, U. Jacob, E.
McDonald-Madden, H. Possingham, M.
Schrter, R. M. Thompson. 2017.
Operationalizing network theory for
ecosystem service assessments. Trends in
Ecology and Evolution 32: 118-130

Global change reduces invertebrate body size
but effects are density dependent.
2016 Hines, J.E., M. Reyes, M.O. Gessner. 2016.
Density constrains cascading consequences
of warming and nitrogen from invertebrate
growth to litter decomposition. Ecology 97:
1635-1642

A reminder that experiments are used to
understand mechanisms underlying patterns
and processes observed in natural systems-- a
response to skepticism from David Wardle.
2016 Eisenhauer, N., A. Barnes, C. Cesarz, D.
Craven, O. Ferlian, F. Gottschall, J. Hines,
A. Sendek, J. Siebert, M. Thakur, M.
Trke. 2016. Biodiversity-ecosystem
function experiments reveal the
mechanisms underlying the consequences
of biodiversity change in real world
ecosystems. Journal of Vegetation Science
27: 10611070.
DESCRIPTION
An evaluation of progress and limitations in
more than five decades of food web and
biodiversity research. Trends suggest that the
next generation of ecologists will be prepared
to use network analysis to bridge previous
gaps between theory and policy.
Soil food webs can enhance plant growth
response to elevated CO2 and influence how
much carbon is sequestered from the
atmosphere. The magnitude of soil food web
effects rival in magnitude the influences of
abiotic drivers such as salinity and nitrogen
deposition. Climate fluctuations influences
variation in abiotic and biotic drivers
underpinning inter-annual variation in plant
response to elevated CO2.
We examine the influence of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment on research priorities
for natural and social sciences.
Environmental problems are becoming
increasingly global in scope, which leads to
the demand for rapid ecosystem assessments
that can be used to compare ecosystem
properties across environments. Here we
improve upon a method of accurate, rapid
ecosystem assessment of soil biological
activity.
YEAR CITATION
2015 Hines, J., W. H. van der Putten, G. B. De
Deyn, C. Wagg, W. Voigt, C. Mulder, W.
Weisser, J. Engel, C. Melian, S. Scheu, K.
Birkhofer, A. Ebeling, C. Scherber, N.
Eisenhauer. 2015. Towards an integration
of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning and
food-web theory to evaluate connections
between multiple ecosystem services.
Advances in Ecological Research 53 (1):
161-199 Guy Woodward, David A. Bohan,
editors. UK: Academic Press
2015 Hines, J., N. Eisenhauer, B. Drake. 2015.
Inter-annual changes in detritus-based food
chains can enhance plant growth response
to elevated atmospheric CO2. Global
Change Biology 21: 4642-4650
2015 Mulder, C., E. M. Bennett, D. A. Bohan,
M. Bonkowski, S. R. Carpenter, R.
Chalmers, W. Cramer, I. Durance, N.
Eisenhauer, A. J. Haughton, J.-P.
Hettelingh, J. Hines, S. Ibanez, E.
Jeppesen, J. Adams Krumins, A. Ma, G.
Mancinelli, F. Massol, . McLaughlin, S.
Naeem, U. Pascual, J. Peuelas, N.
Pettorelli, M. J. O. Pocock, D. Raffaelli, J.
J. Rasmussen, G. M. Rusch, C. Scherber,
H. Setl, W. J. Sutherland, C. Vacher, W.
Voigt, J. A. Vonk, S. A. Wood, G.
Woodward. 2015. 10 Years Later: Revising
Priorities for Science and Society a decade
after the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment. In Ecosystem Services: From
Biodiversity to Society, Advances in
Ecological Research: 53 (1) pp. 1-53, Guy
Woodward, David A. Bohan, editors. UK:
Academic Press
2014 Eisenhauer, N., D. Wirsch, S. Cesarz, D.
Craven, P. Dietrich, J. Friese, J. Helm, J.
Hines, M. Schellenberg, P. Scherreiks, B.
Schwarz, S. Uhe, K. Wagner, K. Steinauer.
2014. Organic textile dye improves the
visual assessment of the bait-lamina test.
Applied Soil Ecology 82: 7881.
DESCRIPTION
A comment on responsible science in
response to Velland et al's assessment of
factors influencing biodiversity changes at a
local scale.
Do diverse communities have stronger effects
on ecosystem functioning under stressful, as
opposed to favourable conditions? Here we
introduce a paper that tests the stress-gradient
hypothesis in an aquatic detritus-detritivore
system.
We present experimental results showing that
primary consumers can influence ecosystem
process rates not only within, but also
across primary producer and decomposer
based food web compartments. Although
traditionally divided, these subwebs are
tightly linked.
We provide a quantitative and qualitative
review of mechanisms that determine the
vulnerability of focal plants to herbivores.
Genetic diversity increases thermal tolerance
of foraging ants, which enhances colony
fitness. This leads to an apparent paradox
where both diversity and relatedness promote
benefits of social cooperation.
Here, we present a compiled database of the
allometry and nutritional
stoichiometry (N and P) of detritivorous
arthropods. We test the influence of
phylogeny, body size, and trophic level on
arthropod elemental composition.
What is the sphere of influence of species
interactions? Here we show that the influence
of soil resource ratios on below ground soil
microbial activity extends across four trophic
levels to influence abundance of above
ground predators.
http://jeshines.foodwebecology.com/?page_id=37
YEAR CITATION
2014 Wright, A. J, M. Bernhardt-Rmermann, D.
Craven, A. Ebeling, J. Engel, J. Hines, N.
Eisenhauer. 2014. Proceedings of Peerage
of Science 1: e6.
2012 Gessner, M. O., and J.E. Hines. 2012.
Stress as a modifier of biodiversity effects
on ecosystem processes? Journal of Animal
Ecology 81: 1143-1145.
2012 Hines, J.E., and M.O. Gessner. 2012.
Consumer trophic diversity as a
fundamental mechanism linking predation
and ecosystem functioning. Journal of
Animal Ecology: 81 1146-1153.
2009 Barbosa, P., J.E. Hines, I. Kaplan, H.
Martinson, A. Szczepaniec, Z. Szendrei.
2009. Associational resistance and
susceptibility: Having right or wrong
neighbors. Annual Review of Ecology,
Evolution and Systematics 40: 1-20.
2008 Wiernasz, D.C., J. Hines, D.G. Parker, B.J.
Cole. 2008. Mating for variety increases
foraging activity in the harvester ant,
Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Molecular
Ecology 17: 1137-1144.
2008 Martinson, H.M., K. Schneider, J. Gilbert,
J.E. Hines, P.A. Hambck, W.F. Fagan.
2008. Detritivory: Stoichiometry of a
neglected trophic level. Ecological
Research 23: 487-491.
2006 Hines, J.E., J.P. Megonigal, and R.F.
Denno. 2006. Nutrient subsidies to
belowground microbes impact
aboveground food web interactions.
Ecology 87: 1542-1555.
Nitrogen Cycle

The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into various chemical
forms as it circulates among the atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of
nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in
the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of
Earth's atmosphere (78%) is nitrogen,making it the largest source of nitrogen. However, atmospheric
nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of usable nitrogen in many
types of ecosystems. The nitrogen cycle is of particular interest to ecologists because nitrogen
availability can affect the rate of key ecosystem processes, including primary production and
decomposition. Human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, use of artificial nitrogen fertilizers,
and release of nitrogen in wastewater have dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle.

Processes

Nitrogen is present in the environment in a wide variety of chemical forms including organic nitrogen,
Ammonium (NH+
4), nitrite (NO
2), nitrate (NO
3), nitrous oxide (N2O), Nitric oxide (NO) or inorganic nitrogen gas (N2). Organic nitrogen may be in
the form of a living organism, humus or in the intermediate products of organic matter decomposition.
The processes of the nitrogen cycle transform nitrogen from one form to another. Many of those
processes are carried out by microbes, either in their effort to harvest energy or to accumulate
nitrogen in a form needed for their growth. For example, the nitrogenous wastes in animal urine are
broken down by nitrifying bacteria in the soil to be used as new. The diagram besides shows how
these processes fit together to form the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen fixation
Conversion of nitrogen into nitrates and nitrites through atmospheric, industrial and biological
processes is called as nitrogen fixation. Atmospheric nitrogen must be processed, or "fixed", in a
usable form to be taken up by plants. Between 5x1012 and 10x1012 g per year are fixed by lightning
strikes, but most fixation is done by free-living or symbiotic bacteria known as diazotrophs. These
bacteria have the nitrogenase enzyme that combines gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to produce
ammonia, which is converted by the bacteria into other organic compounds. Most biological nitrogen
fixation occurs by the activity of Mo- nitrogenase, found in a wide variety of bacteria and some
Archaea. Mo-nitrogenase is a complex two-component enzyme that has multiple metal-containing
prosthetic groups. An example of the free-living bacteria is Azotobacter. Symbiotic nitrogen-fixing
bacteria such as Rhizobium usually live in the root nodules of legumes (such as peas, alfalfa, and
locust trees). Here they form a mutualistic relationship with the plant, producing ammonia in
exchange for carbohydrates. Because of this relationship, legumes will often increase the nitrogen
content of nitrogen-poor soils. A few non-legumes can also form such symbioses. Today, about 30%
of the total fixed nitrogen is produced industrially using the Haber-Bosch process, which uses high
temperatures and pressures to convert nitrogen gas and a hydrogen source (natural gas or
petroleum) into ammonia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_cycle
Disruption of Existing Ecosystem

POLLUTION
Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity's reliance on the combustion of fossil fuels has led to
changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, the frequency and intensity of atmospheric
ozone and smog, and the production of other potent greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and
methane. Further, increases in agricultural production and the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers have
depleted essential soil nutrients, increased the transport of nitrogen and phosphorus to streams and
rivers and led to the degradation of water quality.

BIODIVERSITY
As the human population increased, the amount of land needed to house and feed everyone also has
increased. To accommodate the increasing population, habitat critical for other plants and animals
has decreased, leading to reduced populations of various birds, fish, mammals and plants. Prior to
human encroachment, some keystone species, such as the gray wolf, were critical in maintaining
population deer populations, one of their primary food sources. Deer populations have increased
throughout the nation due to lack of predation by gray wolves, becoming pests in many communities.

INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
As in all ecosystems, many, if not all, components are connected in one way or another. Therefore,
alterations to one component, such as soil quality, can affect other components, such as water quality
and biodiversity. For example, excess fertilizer application in the agricultural Midwestern United
States has led to degraded water quality throughout the Mississippi River watershed, including the
hypoxic, or oxygen-degraded, zone of the Gulf of Mexico, which influences local and regional
fisheries.

SOLUTIONS
While not all impacts on ecosystems are reversible, there are several ways to minimize and reverse
human-induced adverse effects. Green technologies that reduce reliance on fossil fuels, decrease
waste and have low carbon footprints can make measurable differences on the quality of multiple
ecosystems. For example, utilizing public transportation and car-pooling can reduce gaseous carbon
emissions, alternative energy sources produce fewer atmospheric contaminants and reducing the
reliance on large-scale agriculture can help reduce soil and water pollution by minimizing excessive
use of synthetic fertilizers.

https://sciencing.com/humans-disrupt-ecosystem-5968.html