Food Chain Definition Ecology
Example identifying roles in a food web.
Food chain definition ecology. Food chains intertwine locally into a food web because most organisms consume more than one type of animal or plant. Each of the levels within the food chain is a trophic level. The feeding level is known as the trophic level.;
In scientific terms, a food chain is a chronological pathway or an order that shows the flow of energy from one organism to the other. Organisms in an ecosystem affect each other’s population. If any of the food chains are removed then successive food chain will be harmfully affected.
The producers are represented primarily by the green plants, and, to a lesser extent, by the photosynthetic bacteria. The food chain starts with the producer or plants that convert solar energy into the usable form of energy (food) by the process of photosynthesis which is then eaten by consumers. How food chains and food webs represent the flow of energy and matter.
A food chain represents only one dimension of food or energy flow through an ecosystem and shows a simple relationship between components. The study of groups of organisms is called synecology. A food web can be described as a who eats whom diagram that shows the complex feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
At the bottom of the food chain, the herbage, are the producers. Supplement the directional flow of materials and energy from one organism to another is graphically represented by arrows. 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).
In economics, the food chain is the series of processes by which we grow, sell, and eventually consume food. Trophic cascade, an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain. The food chain also explains the feeding pattern or relationship between living organisms.