There are numerous well-defined food chains on our planet that play a crucial role in the continuance of life.Food chains form the basis of food webs wherein the food webs are the sum total of all the food chains in a given ecosystem. We do not even realize that so many food chains around us are interconnected and together create complex food webs.The ecological system works well because of the food webs that are created. Every ecological area has its specific food webs that ensure smooth functioning. These food webs are made from multiple wood chains joined together, interlinked with one another.A food chain consists of a primary consumer, a secondary consumer, and a tertiary consumer. A plant that makes its own food is consumed by a herbivore. The herbivore is then consumed by some carnivore who in turn is eaten by vultures or microbes when it dies. This entire cycle of life, eating and being eaten comprises a food chain. Multiple such chains accumulate and link together to form a food web. It plays an important role in the transfer of energy from the Earth to the living plants and animals. It was Charles Elton who in 1987 recognized that food chains were not isolated, they formed combinations to create a larger food web. The uninterrupted continuity of the food chain is important for the maintenance of stability in life sciences on the planet.Read on to know about the concept of producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers in a food chain. Afterward, also check Lake Erie food web and food chains in the oceans.TypesWhile all connections within the food chain and the food web are important, the flow of energy among some of them is of greater importance than others. These can influence the change in the population of certain species and even assist in their evolution.Robert Paine has stated three main types of food webs that he felt existed in nature after he examined the coast of Washington. First are correctness webs. These are sometimes also referred to as the topological food webs. These webs demonstrate the feeding relationship among the organisms. The second is the energy flow web. As the name suggests, it showcases how the energy flows from one species to another and then back to nature. The third type that Robert described as a functional web. Functional webs deal with the increasing or /and decreasing growth within the population of a species.The species are classified into separate trophic levels to make it easier to understand their place in the food chain. Two important classifications are autotrophs and heterotrophs. While autotrophs can make their own food, heterotrophs tend to transfer energy from others by consuming them. It is the food web that clearly shows how the organisms from various food chains relate to each other and transfer the energy from one trophic level to another. The various trophic levels in a food web include the primary producers. These are the ones who make their own food using light energy. Green plants mostly constitute this trophic level. These green plants are the primary producers and are commonly also known as autotrophs. Then next come the primary consumers. Now primary consumers are those who feed on the primary producers for their survival. These primary consumers are popularly known as herbivores. Primary consumers include cows, goats, rabbits, elephants, and so on. Secondary consumers come next in the food chain. Secondary consumers are the ones who eat the primary consumers. They can be seen as omnivores, eating both primary consumers as well as primary producers or carnivores, relying solely on the primary consumers. Secondary consumers are most vicious and dangerous. Examples of secondary consumers include bears, crows, etc.Tertiary consumers eat both plants as well as animals. They are actually quite similar to carnivores, except for the fact that they tend to consume other carnivores as well, such as the eagle. At the top are apex predators. The apex predators do not have any others above them to threaten by consuming them. A classic example of an apex predator is the lion. The decomposers also play an important role in the ecological system. They eat the dead plants and animals, such as fungi and detritivores are the ones who consume all the dead organic materials. An example of such an animal is the vulture.Food ChainThe food chain also follows the flow of energy as it moves from one consumer to the next in the trophic cycle. The energy originates as the primary producers make food from the sun’s energy and then this energy gets passed along the food chain.It is different from the food web as it consists of a single line or chain of consumption. This chain can be small or large depending on the kind of species involved in the food chain. The energy travel in the case of food change is linear. The herbivore eats the green plants, a predator, carnivore or omnivore then eats the herbivore and when the carnivore dies, the decomposers take in its energy, eventually transferring them to the ground, back to nature. For example, algae are the main producer in the marine environment. Such algae and plankton are the staple food for krill, which is a smaller shrimp. This little shrimp can become the meal of a whale which in turn will eventually be eaten by an orca or a large blue whale. Later, as the big whale dies, its body sinks towards the sea/ocean floor. The sea bacteria start to eat the decomposing body, eventually spreading the nutrients and the energy flows back to the seafloor for the planktons and algae to consume.The energy flow is constant as the cycle of eating continues. It is the smaller animal or organism that mostly gets consumed by the larger, stronger, and vicious animal. There are different types of chains that are present in nature. One is the predator chain. This is the one most known as the primary consumer or the herbivore is eaten by the predator or the carnivore. There is also a parasite chain that comes under the food chain classification. Herein, it is the small animal or organism that eats the larger animal or may even eat other small animals similar to its size. And the last is the saprophytic chain, in which the animals survive by eating the dead matter. If the food chain is made shorter, the complete amount of energy flow that the last consumer gets is more than compared to the energy flow that is received by the last consumer of a larger food chain. The food chain shows how animal ecology works to include different trophic levels and how the chemical energy moves around from one organism to another.Food WebIf you are confused about the concept of a food web or a food chain, then here are some important facts related to food webs to help improve your understanding.The food chains are interconnected to form a food web. It is widespread in its context. A food web diagram includes multiple food chains and also shows how the different trophic levels of various chains link to one another. The green plants in the food cycle often are the starting point of food chains. The food web diagram demonstrates how several food chains are interlinked and interdependent on each other, providing food energy from organic material.There are many different species included within a particular food web. Food webs are different for different ecosystems. There is a separate food web for the grassland ecosystem and a different one for the marine environment. The top predators are different species present in all ecosystems and therefore in their respective food webs. Every food chain shows some keystone species without whom the food chain would not exist.The terrestrial food webs can have a carnivorous animal and a herbivore as their keystone species while the marine environment is likely to have an oyster and a shark as the keystone species in its cycle. The food chain describes the other animals as intermediaries for energy flow. The food cycle is complete once the final consumer either receives the energy or the energy flows into the ground after that animal has passed away. Each food chain within the food web has links with the other food chain at specific trophic levels.Scientists usually explain the different levels of a food web as a well-defined trophic level in a food chain. Each plant and animal in the lower trophic levels can be consumed by more than one species from a higher trophic level. This can be seen as nature’s way of maintaining balance. In every chain, the dominant, powerful animal is called the keystone organism. The number of final consumers or the apex predators is always more than that of the animals that transfer the flow of energy before them. This diagrammatically will seem like a pyramid, with a wide base of producers and a fewer number of organisms towards the top.This concept is not new. As the species have evolved over the years, so have the food chain and the elements within it. Animals and all living beings evolve over time to adapt to the ongoing changes in their surroundings and survive better in order to continue the species and save themselves from extinction. However, as the primary consumers evolve, so do those of higher trophic levels, making it a continuous cycle. As these individual food chains come together, the food web of a particular system is formed, with different predators consuming the same primary producers and consumers. This is a natural cycle that existed long before us and will continue to exist for a long time to come.This food web is present across all countries and all ecosystems, covering land, water, and also air. It provides support to all types of food chains irrespective of whether it is long and complex or short and crisp. A healthy and strong food web is one in which there are a large number of primary producers and a relatively lower number of primary consumers. If in an ecosystem, the number of consumers becomes more than the number of producers, the primary consumers will starve to death, as a result of which all other animals at higher levels of that food chain will eventually either find a substitute or starve to death, leading to an end of that particular food chain within the larger food web.Interesting Food Web ExamplesAn example of terrestrial food webs can include grass being eaten by squirrels and grasshoppers. The grasshopper could then be eaten by a frog while a snake could grab the squirrel. The frog then gets eaten by a fox and the snake is eaten by an eagle.To make things more interesting, the eagle may even eat the squirrel directly, making the food chain smaller and enabling the eagle to get more energy flow. Similarly, the snake, being an omnivore, could directly eat the grass, before becoming a meal for the eagle. Here, the eagle and the fox are tertiary consumers, while the frog and snake are secondary and grasshopper and squirrel are primary consumers. Eventually, as the eagle and the fox die, they are consumed by worms and the energy then flows back to the earth.Another food web example is of different species from the marine environment. In the marine environment the seaweeds and seagrass. These are consumed by the primary consumers like turtles and crabs. The secondary consumers like octopus and squid eat turtles and crabs for sustenance. These are then eaten by seagulls, penguins, and whales, which are the tertiary consumers.There are food web examples showing other animals also present in the ecosystem. Another example is that flowering plants and lavenders are eaten by butterflies. These butterflies are then eaten by either frogs or dragonflies. While the dragonfly gets eaten by a small bird, the frog is consumed by a snake, who may also eat a rat. Both sparrow and the snake can now be eaten either by an eagle or a wolf, depending on the ecosystem they belong to.Let us understand the workings of this complex system through a food web example. Here we will discuss an intricate food web in the marine environment. In the marine environment, algae and phytoplankton form the base of every food web. These are consumed by primary consumers such as small fish and zooplankton. Then these primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers like small sharks, corals, large fish, and baleen wheels. The top predators of the ocean environment include large sharks, dolphins, and toothed whales. But here also humans sit at the top of the food webs of the water world as we are capable of consuming all types of marine life.The primary producers here such as the algae and phytoplankton from the lowest trophic level and are at the bottom of the aquatic food webs. All the primary producers are known to produce their own energy without any need to eat something. While some primary producers require sunlight to synthesize their own energy, most of them are also capable of producing energy through chemosynthesis where they use the heat from hydrothermal vents and methane seeps to metabolize the chemicals.Now, at the second level of the food web in marine environments, you will find rotifers, copepods, and other fishes and marine animals who will roam around the waters eating live plants as well as dead plants. Larger animals like reptiles and mammals will feed on algae and use the strainers in their body to separate food from the water. This technique is followed by larger aquatic animals as well such as manta rays and baleen whales. Top predators in this environment prefer to feed on other animals. The choice of prey depends on the biology of the predators in the food chains. The most known predators in the water are sharks, sea stars, box jellyfish, as well as various types of fish. Then there are some ambush predators such as eels and octopuses who hide in the marine environment and then ambush their prey. Such animals are not consumed by other predators in the water and are only prey to top predators such as leopard seals or killer whales.Then the humans sit at the top here where different humans across the world catch these marine animals including top predators and then consume them in different forms. So, you see that while the food webs in such environments are quite complex, they all have primary producers at the bottom and top predators at the end of the food chains.But there is also the problem of leftovers. This is where scavengers come into play. There are many animals that die in the water without being eaten. Such organisms or parts of animals that are not consumed fall to the bottom of the sea or ocean. Here they will be consumed by bottom-dwelling scangers like crabs and lobsters. If even still some of the organic material has been left behind, then the bacteria present in the water consumes it. Herein the waste product becomes nutrition for the bacteria which then powers the food chains as stated above. This is the reason that when an animal dies in the water, a whole different food chain is triggered.Last but not the least, we will talk about the opportunistic feeders. These animals can be present anywhere in the food web and might even break the established food chains to satisfy their hunger. Such animals are also known to feed on each other if there ever is a need. There is no defined trophic level for such opportunistic feeders in the food chain.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for food web examples that will enhance your kids knowledge then why not take a look at food pipe, or Atlantic Ocean food chain.
There are numerous well-defined food chains on our planet that play a crucial role in the continuance of life.
