FOOD CHAINS AND FOOD WEBS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuO4WB4SwCg

Food chains and food webs describe feeding relationships. The population of
species in a food chain is shown using a pyramid of numbers.

Key Terms

Term Description

Environment All the conditions that surround a living organism.

Habitat The place where an organism lives.

Population All the members of a single species that live in a habitat.

All the populations of different organisms that live together in a

Community
habitat.

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with

the non-living components of their environment, interacting as a
Ecosystem
system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together
through nutrient cycles and energy flows.

Trophic
The level at which organisms feed.
Level

Biomass The total quantity or weight of organisms in a given area or volume.

Types of Food Chains/Food Webs

 Aquatic: Water

 Terrestrial: Land
Aquatic

Aquatic food chain/food webs are made up of both freshwater and saltwater. In
freshwater there are shredders like the stonefly, who feed on organic matter.
Phytoplankton are a main producer in the aquatic web. Some phytoplankton
and terrestrial organic matter fall to the bottom of an aquatic ecosystem where
they are eaten by bottom grazers. Other phytoplankton is eaten by
zooplankton. The primary consumers of zooplankton are small fish and
whales. Secondary consumers are larger fish who eat the smaller fish, which
can then also be eaten by larger fish or tertiary consumers.

Terrestrial

Producers include grasses, berries and flowers, and seeds. These producers are
eaten by insects such as goats, mouse etc, as well as by omnivores such as
lions. When these animals die, they are decomposed by fungi and insects, and
then used as fertilizer for the producers.
 Food Chains

A food chain is a linear network of links starting from producer organisms and
ending at apex predator species, detritivores, or decomposer species. 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.

Characteristics of a Food Chain

1. Producers Based:
All sustainable food chains are producer based.
2. Energy:
Producers obtain energy from sun. All others (consumers) obtain the
energy from food originally built up producers. There is unidirectional
flow of energy. Approximately 1/10 of the energy produced is transferred
through the sequence.
3. Biogenetic Nutrients:
Inorganic nutrients must keep on circulating with the help of
decomposers. Otherwise, food chains cannot be sustained.
4. Straight:
Unless linked with another, food chain runs straight.
 5. Size:
Food chains are generally short with 3-5 trophic levels.
6. Populations:
Size of populations decreases with the rise in trophic level. Top
carnivores are always very few.
7. Trophic Levels:
An organism can operate at more than one trophic level, e.g., snake feeds
on herbivorous rat as well as carnivorous frog.

Producers and Consumers

A food chain always starts with a producer, an organism that makes food. This
is usually a green plant because plants can make their own food
by photosynthesis.

A food chain ends with a consumer, an animal that eats a plant or another
animal.

Here is an example of a simple food chain:

The arrows in food chains show the way in which energy is moving. They
do not show what eats what.
There are several words used to describe the organisms in a food chain. Study
this food chain below:
The food chain from grass to hawk
The plant is the producer, and the animals are consumers:

 The first consumer in the chain is also

called the primary consumer
 The next one is the secondary consumer
 The one after that is the tertiary consumer
A consumer that only eats plants is called a herbivore, and a consumer that
only eats other animals is called a carnivore. An omnivore is an animal that
eats both plants and animals.

Food Webs
A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical
representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for
food web is consumer-resource system.

When all the food chains in an ecosystem are joined up together, they form
a food web. Here is an example of a food web:

Although it looks complex, it is just several food chains joined. Here are few of
the food chains in this food web above:

1. Grass → Grasshopper → Scorpion → Kit Fox

2. Grass → Ground Squirrel→ Kit Fox
3. Grass → Ground Squirrel → Golden Eagle

Notice that:

 The ground squirrel has just TWO predators while the scorpion has
ONE.

1.What happen if the population of ground squirrel decreases?

This leads to some interesting effects if the population of a particular organism
in the food web decreases. Some animals can just eat more of another organism
if food is in short supply, while others may starve and die. This in turn can
affect the populations of other organisms in the food web.

Changes to Food Webs

Observe the food web above. What would happen if the population of one of the
organisms changed?

(a). What would happen if the grass died?

1. The grass (plantain) is the producer. If it died, the consumers that feed on
it - rabbits, grasshopper, and mouse - would have no food.

2. They would starve and die unless they could move to another habitat.
 3. All the other animals in the food web would die too because their food
supplies would have gone. The populations of the consumers would fall
as the population of the producer fell.

(b). What would happen if the population of fox decreased?

(c). What would happen if the population of mouse decreased?

Energy Transfer in a Food Chain

Energy is transferred along food chains from one trophic level to the next.

However, the amount of available energy decreases from one trophic level to
the next.

Energy Loss

In a food chain only around 10 per cent of the energy is passed on to the next
trophic level. The rest of the energy passes out of the food chain in a number of
ways:

 It is used as heat energy.

 It is used for life processes (eg movement).
 Faeces and remains are passed to decomposers.
Less energy is transferred at each level of the food chain, so the biomass gets
smaller. As a result, there are usually fewer than FIVE trophic levels in food
chains.

Feeding Relationships -Symbiosis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPhY1-4f_0
Symbiosis is a close relationship between TWO species in which at least ONE
species benefits.

Type Definition Example

Mutualism Both partner benefit. Egret and cow;
mycorrhizae
Commensalism One partner benefit with Remora and shark
no effect on the other.
Parasitism One partner benefit to Disease causing
the detriment of the organisms
other.

Activity 1

1.Why must the plant be the 1st organism in the food chain?

2.What source causes energy to be stored in plants?

3. How can an organism get the energy stored in foods? Why are plants referred
to as producers?

4. What term is used to describe animals that feed directly or indirectly on

producers?

5. Which direction does the arrowhead point to?

6. What do the arrows in the food chain show?

7. If energy is reduced at each link in the chain, how many different trophic
levels would you include?

8. At each link, why is there less energy available to the organism than at the
previous link?
 Types of Nutrition in Food Chain

The types of nutrition-autotrophic and heterotrophic.

Auto-means self; hetero means others:

Holozoic (feeding on large pieces of food, which are taken

into the alimentary canal and digested extracellularly e.g.
humans)

Heterotrophic Saprophytic (feeding on dead organic material,

extracellularly and then absorbed e.g. Mucor)

Parasitic (feeding on, and living in close association) with

organism called the host, e.g. tapeworm)

Filter feeding (feeding on small organisms and food

particles in water which are trapped by filtration system &
then digested e.g. mangrove oyster/blue whale.

Activity 2

1. State the original source of energy in a food chain.

2. The process by which energy is used by the producer in a food chain is?

3. Write the chemical equation for the process in which energy is used in a
food chain.
___________________________________________________________

4. Explain the importance of the different types of nutrition in a food chain.

Exp Ans: reduces competition of food; increases variety in food source;
maintains a balanced ecosystem.

5. Define the following terms:

(i). Herbivore: ________________________
 (ii). Carnivore: ________________________
(iii). Detritivores: ______________________

6. Identify THREE differences between Food Chain and Food Webs.

Homework:

1. Group the organisms shown in the food web in their respective trophic
levels.

2. Suggest TWO ways in which energy can be lost in the food web above.
3. Explain how removal of any ONE organism might alter the remaining
population.
4. Construct at least FOUR food chains from the given food web.
 Pyramids of Number and Biomass

Pyramid of number

The number of organisms in each trophic level is counted and presented in a

pyramid of numbers.

These are referred to as pyramids because of their shape.

Pyramid of Number - grassland
Producers have a higher value than the primary consumers; primary consumers
have a higher value than the secondary consumers and so on.

Advantages Disadvantages

They do not take the organism’s size into account so may not
Counting numbers
always resemble a pyramid. For example, if producer is 1 tree
is easy to do.
then pyramid will look inverted (smaller on bottom).

Pyramid of Biomass

The biomass (amount of living material) of organisms in each trophic level is

measured and presented in a pyramid of biomass.
 Advantages Disadvantages

It is more accurate as the organism’s size Biomass data is difficult to obtain as the
is taken into account. For example, a bar organism needs to be killed and heated in
representing 1 tree will be largest as it has an oven to remove any water, until a
more mass than primary consumers. constant dry mass is obtained.

Pyramids of biomass are used to overcome the problem of inverted pyramids of

number.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJplkrliUEg