Food Chains and Food Webs: "What's for dinner?

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Every organism needs to obtain energy to survive. Plants get energy from the sun. Then, some animals
eat plants and some animals eat other animals in order to obtain the energy they need captured by plants.

A food chain is the sequence of who eats whom in a biological community in order to obtain energy and
nutrition. A food chain is powered by a primary energy source; the sun for most systems but maybe
hydrothermal deep sea vents for some systems on the ocean floor where light does not reach. The base,
or foundation, of the chain is an organism that makes its own food using the primary energy source - plants
that make their own food using sunlight (photosynthesis) and some bacteria make their food using the
energy from chemicals in hydrothermal vents (chemosynthesis). Organisms that produce their own food
using energy from the environment are called producers or autotrophs.

Next on the food chain are organisms that eat the autotrophs; these organisms are called herbivores or
primary consumers. An example is a rabbit (herbivore) as it eats grass (producer). The next link in the
chain are animals that eat herbivores; these are called secondary consumers. An example is a snake
that eats rabbits. In turn, these animals are eaten by other predators; an example is an owl that eats
snakes. The tertiary consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers; an example is a hawk that eats
owls. Each food chain ends with a top predator; an animal with no natural enemies (like an alligator,
hawk, or polar bear).

Food Chain Questions

1. Identify the source of energy for most food chains.
2. Identify the foundation of all food chains.
3. Identify two processes by which organisms can use energy to produce their own food.
4. Identify the energy source for chemosynthetic bacteria and where they are typically found?
5. Identify the type of organism that must always occupy the 1st level of a food chain.
6. Define herbivore.
7. Herbivores are also called _________________________.
8. What are animals called that feed on herbivores?
9. Identify the type of organism that hunts and kills (preys on) other organisms.
10. _________________ consumers eat secondary consumers.
11. Create a realistic food chain with a producer and 3 consumers.
The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy from the producer to the top predator. Energy flows
from organism to organism and is used or lost at each step as the organism works to survive. Only
the energy stored in the body of the organism is passed to the next trophic level. A food web is
simply a network of many interconnecting food chains in a system.

Trophic Levels:

The trophic level of an organism is the position it holds

in a food chain.
1. Producers (organisms that make their own food
using energy from sunlight or chemicals from deep
sea vents) are the base of every food chain; these
organisms are called autotrophs.
2. Primary consumers are animals that eat
producers, called herbivores (plant-eaters).
3. Secondary consumers eat primary consumers,
called omnivores (eat both plants and animals) or
carnivores (meat-eaters).
4. Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers.
5. Quaternary consumers eat tertiary consumers.
6. Food chains "end" with top predators, which are animals that have little or no natural enemies.

When any organism dies, it is eventually eaten by detritivores (like vultures, worms and crabs that
internally digest their food) and broken down by saprotrophs (mostly bacteria and fungi that externally
digest their food). This process expels the leftover energy as heat into the environment and makes the
matter (carbon, nitrogen, etc.) stored within the organisms available for reuse by other organisms.

Some organisms' position in the food chain can vary due to a diverse diet. For example, a bear eating
berries is functioning as a primary consumer but a bear eating a herbivorous rodent is functioning as a
secondary consumer. When the bear eats salmon, the bear is functioning as a tertiary consumer (this is
because salmon is a secondary consumer, since salmon eat herring that eat zooplankton that eat
phytoplankton that make their own food using sunlight). Think about how people's place in the food
chain varies - often within a single meal!

Food Web Questions

1. What is used to indicate the flow of energy in a diagram of a food chain or food web?
2. What three things can happen to energy moving from step to step in a food chain or food web?
3. Define food web.
4. What is meant by a trophic level?
5. Define autotroph.
6. The 2ndt trophic level consists of _______________ consumers called _________________.
7. Secondary consumers may be _______________ eating meat or _______________ that eat both
plants and animals.
8. Identify the organisms that occupy the 4th trophic level.
9. The 5th trophic level includes _____________ consumers that eat _____________ consumers.
10. Give an example of 3 detritivores. On what do they feed?
11. What does external digestion mean?
12. Both ______________ and ______________act as decomposers
13. Can an organism fill more than one trophic level --- yes or no? Give an example.

Numbers of Organisms:
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that energy becomes less useful after every transfer (move) and
transformation (change). This means that in any food web the amount of usable energy decreases from
one trophic level to the next. Because of this there are often many more plants (producers) than there
are plant-eaters (herbivores) and many more omni/carnivores than herbivores, although this is not always
the case. Each level has about 90% less energy available to it because the energy is lost as heat at
each level by the organisms’ respective metabolisms. Although there is intense competition between
animals, there is also interdependence. When one species goes extinct, it can affect an entire chain of
other species and have unpredictable consequences.

Equilibrium:

As the number of carnivores in a community increases, they eat more and more of the herbivores,
decreasing the herbivore population. It then becomes more difficult for the carnivores to find herbivores to
eat, and the population of carnivores decreases. In this way, the carnivores and herbivores stay in a
relatively stable equilibrium, each limiting the other's population. A similar equilibrium exists between
producers and herbivores.

Source: CK-12

Ecological Pyramids:

There are three main ways to represent a community; by numbers, their biomass or their energy. A
pyramid of numbers represents the population of each species on a particular trophic level (or the entire
trophic level itself). These pyramids can be right side up or inverted because they don’t account for the size
of individuals. For example, one herbivore may consume many pieces of grass (△), or many insects may
survive off the leaves of a single tree (▽). A pyramid of biomass represents the dry mass (without water)
of those same organisms and is measured in kgᐧm-2. Since this pyramid accounts for the size of organisms,
it tends to be a more accurate representation of the system. A pyramid of energy represents the chemical
energy stored within the organism’s dry mass (since water doesn’t convert to usable energy) and is
measured in kJᐧm-2ᐧyr-1.

Source: Hourly Book

 Complete the Food Chains Worksheet
Circle the organisms that complete the food chains below.
 Food Chain Worksheet
Read the passage then answer the questions below.
 Food Web Worksheet
Read the passage then answer the questions below.
Food Chain Quiz - Multiple choice comprehension questions
Color the circle by each correct answer.
Food Chain Quiz #2 - Multiple choice comprehension questions
Color the circle by each correct answer.
Match each Food Chain Word to its Definition.
Food Chain Trophic Levels - Worksheet