Trophic Levels- The feeding positions in a
food chain or web
1st Trophic Level: Producer- makes its own food.
Producers make up the first trophic level. Producers, also known as autotrophs, make their own
food and do not depend on any other organism for nutrition. Most autotrophs use a process
called photosynthesis to create food from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. Plants are the most
familiar type of autotroph
2nd Tropic Level: The next trophic levels are made up of animals that eat producers. These
organisms are called consumers. Consumers can be carnivores (animals that eat other animals)
or herbivores (animals that eat plants only) and/or omnivores (animals that eat both plants and
animals). Primary consumers are herbivores. Herbivores eat plants, and/or algae.
3rd Tropic Level: Consumes the primary consumer
4th Tropic Level: Consumes the secondary consumers
Trophic Level Where It Gets Food Example
1st Trophic Level: Producer Makes its own food Plants make food
2nd Trophic Level: Grasshoppers eat
Consumes producers
Primary Consumer plant seeds
3rd Trophic Level: Secondary Consumes primary
Mice eat grasshoppers
Consumer consumers
4th Trophic Level: Tertiary Consumes secondary
Snakes eat mice
Consumer consumers
Food Chain- follow a single path as animals eat each other. straight and single pathway for the
flow of energy in an ecosystem, through different species of organisms
On the image, we can see that the flower’s nectar is the producer then from it, the butterfly
consumes its nectar making it as the primary consumer. The butterfly is the eaten by the frog
which is the secondary consumer and the frog is eaten by the heron which is the tertiary
consumer. Hindi lang po naipakita sa picture pero ang end stage ng isang food chain ay ang
decomposers. Decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, complete the food chain. Decomposers
turn organic wastes, such as decaying plants, into inorganic materials, such as nutrient-rich soil.
They complete the cycle of life, returning nutrients to the soil or oceans for use by autotrophs.
This starts a whole new series of food chains.
Food Web- Show how plants are interconnected by different paths.
Shows how plants and animals are connected in many ways to help them all survive. Food web is
an important ecological concept. Basically, food web represents feeding relationships within a
community (Smith and Smith 2009). It also implies the transfer of food energy from its source in
plants through herbivores to carnivores (Krebs 2009). Normally, food webs consist of a number
of food chains meshed together.
Food web offers an important tool for investigating the ecological interactions that define energy
flows and predator-prey relationship (Cain et al. 2008). This shows a simplified food web in a
desert ecosystem. In this food web, grasshoppers feed on plants; scorpions prey on grasshoppers;
kit foxes prey on scorpions
Types of Food Webs
Food webs describe the relationships — links or connections — among species in an ecosystem,
but the relationships vary in their importance to energy flow and dynamics of species populations
1. Connectedness Web- (or topological food webs) emphasizes feeding relationships among
species, portrayed as links in a food web.
2. Energy flow webs- quantify energy flow from one species to another. Thickness of an arrow
reflects the strength of the relationship.
3. Functional webs- (or interaction food webs) represent the importance of each species in
maintaining the integrity of a community and reflect influence on the growth rate of other
species' populations.
The difference between food chains and food webs? In summary, food chains are a single path
while a food web is a more complex network.
Food chains are a single path showing how energy moves from organism to organism through an
ecosystem, while a food web is a more complex network that maps the multiple feeding
relationships of each organism in an ecosystem.
Species Interactions- There are several classes of interactions among organisms that are found
throughout many habitats and ecosystems.
Using these classes of interactions as a framework when studying an ecological community
allows scientists to describe naturally occurring processes and aids in predicting how human
alterations to the natural world may affect ecosystem properties and processes. There are types of
species interactions and I will discuss the mutualism, competition, and predation.
1. Mutualism- is a symbiotic interaction where both or all individuals benefit from the
relationship.
Mutualism is a type of relationship between the host and a symbiont, where both organisms
benefit and no one is harmed. This relationship may either continue for longer or for shorter-
term. For example, Ants live and feed on the nectar of acacia trees. Here ants are the mutualist
and acacia trees is the host. The acacia tree provides home and food for the ants. As they have
hollow huge thorns – homes for the ants and yellow swellings on the leaves- food for the ants. In
reverse ants acts a guard attacking insects and protects the tree from grazing animals.
There are 5 types of Mutualism;
Facultative mutualisms are beneficial but not essential to survival and reproduction of
either party. For example Honeybees and plants.
Honey bees visit many different plants species for the nectar from the flower and these plants
will be visited by the number of the insect as pollinators for pollination.
Obligate mutualisms are those that are essential to the life of one or both associates. For
example Yucca plant and the moth.
The yucca plant, the habitat of the dry and arid climate of the southwestern United States. The
flower of the yucca plant relies on the moth for the pollination process. In turn, the moth is
benefited by laying its eggs on the flower and feeding the larvae with the seeds.
trophic mutualism- the partners are specialized in complementary ways to obtain energy
and nutrients from each other.
For example The cows and the bacteria.
Cows cannot digest the plant’s cellulose. The bacteria present in the rumens of cows helps in
digesting plants cellulose. In reverse bacteria gets food and warm environment, which is required
for their growth and development.
Defensive Mutualism- In defensive mutualism, one partner receives food and shelter and
in return, it helps the partner by defending against the herbivores or predators or
parasites.
For example The aphids and the ants.
The aphids produce honeydew to the ants, which is carried to their nests at night for protecting
them from the predators and escort. These aphids are carried back to the plant the next morning.
In return, ants are benefited by assembling the aphid’s eggs and storing in their nest chambers to
survive the cold winter months.
Dispersive Mutualism- In dispersive mutualism, one partner receives food in return for
helping flower in transferring their pollen.
For example Honeybees and the Plants.
Honey bees travel from one flower to another in search of nectar from the flower which is
required to prepare honey, in return plants are benefited by the pollination as the honey bee
spread the pollen from one plant to another.
2. Competition- occurs when living organisms, including animals, plants, bacteria and
fungi, need the same limited resources to thrive in their shared environment.
Competition is most typically considered the interaction of individuals that vie for a common
resource that is in limited supply, but more generally can be defined as the direct or indirect
interaction of organisms that leads to a change in fitness when the organisms share the same
resource. The outcome usually has negative effects on the weaker competitors. Competition can
occur within a species or between different species. The many types of competition include
everything from dogs fighting over a bone to rutting stags locking horns in a fight to the
death. There are three major forms of competition. Two of them, interference
competition and exploitation competition, are categorized as real competition. A third
form, apparent competition, is not. Interference competition occurs directly between individuals,
while exploitation competition and apparent competition occur indirectly between individuals.
3. Predation- Predation requires one individual, the predator, to kill and eat another
individual, the prey (Figure 3). In most examples of this relationship, the predator and
prey are both animals; however, protozoans are known to prey on bacteria and other
protozoans and some plants are known to trap and digest insects.
Predation is a classic species interaction that has been investigated for a very long time.
Conceptually, predation is an interaction that benefits one side; the predator, and harms the other
side; the prey. In brutal reality, of course, prey is often not just “harmed” but killed. That
depends on the type of predator: True predators are those that typically kill their prey, whereas
grazers remove parts of their prey but do not usually kill them
