Food chains and webs, Tropic levels

Food chains and webs

 

Food chain is the sequence of organisms in which nutrients and energy is transferred in the form of food from one organism to another organisms. Food chain is the possible pathway in which nutrients and energy is transferred through an ecosystem.

A food chain is the linear network of links in which a food web is starting from producers organisms and is ending at decomposers.  A food chain shows a series or organisms taking part at various biotic level.

Each steps or levels of the food chain forms a tropic level.

The tropic level of an organisms is the position it occupies in a food web. Organisms in food chain are grouped into categories are known as trophic levels.

Tropic levels are divided into various levels:--

 

Producers:--

                     The producers or the autotrophs are the first trophic level.  All green plants and few organisms are classified as first trophic or producers. Usually plant and algae or few organisms take nutrients from the soil or the oceans and prepare  their own food with the help of photosynthesis. Due to this ,they are called primary producers. They utilizes the solar energy to create the nutrients.

 

Consumers:--

                      The second tropic levels are consumers. The second tropic level is that tropic level that consists of the organisms or species that consumes or eat the producers.  The consumers are organisms or species that cannot create or prepare their own foods and they depends on the other organisms to consumes .organisms that eat or consumes the primary producers like plants are called  herbivores. Organisms that consumes or eat other organisms are called carnivores. And those organisms that can consumes or eat both plants and other organisms are called omnivores.

 

Decomposers :--

                           It is final part of the food chain. Decomposers is the final tropic level. These are the some micro-organisms like bacteria and fungi. These are saprophytes. The decomposers break the dead bodies of consumers and producers and degrade the complex organic substances into simple substance. When dead organism break down, decomposers releases carbon back to the environment and facilitate nutrient cycling. This can be done by converting the nutrients stored in dead organisms back to form that can be used by the plants and other micro organisms.

 

 

 

 

 

                      Top carnivires

                              

                         carnivores

                              

 

                        herbivores

                                     

                        producers

                               

                          sunlight

 

 

diagram showing flow of energy in an ecosystem