![]() A diagram which sets out the intricate network of intersecting and overlapping food chains for an ecosystem is called its food web. In real world ecosystems, there is more than one food chain for most organisms, since most organisms eat more than one kind of food or are eaten by more than one type of predator. ![]() The fungi on this tree feed on dead matter, converting it back to nutrients that primary producers can use. Level 5: Apex predators which have no predators are at the top of the food chain.Level 4: Carnivores which eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumers.Level 3: Carnivores which eat herbivores are called secondary consumers.Level 2: Herbivores eat plants and are called primary consumers.Level 1: Plants and algae make their own food and are called primary producers.Further trophic levels are numbered subsequently according to how far the organism is along the food chain. Trophic levels can be represented by numbers, starting at level 1 with plants. Decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi (mushrooms), feed on waste and dead matter, converting it into inorganic chemicals that can be recycled as mineral nutrients for plants to use again. Decomposers ( detritivores) break down dead plant and animal material and wastes and release it again as energy and nutrients into the ecosystem for recycling.Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores, and animals that eat both plant and other animals are called omnivores. Animals that eat primary producers (like plants) are called herbivores. Consumers ( heterotrophs) are animals which cannot manufacture their own food and need to consume other organisms.Here primary producers manufacture food through a process called chemosynthesis. An exception occurs in deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems, where there is no sunlight. In this way, it is energy from the sun that usually powers the base of the food chain. For this reason, they are called primary producers. Plants and algae do not usually eat other organisms, but pull nutrients from the soil or the ocean and manufacture their own food using photosynthesis. Producers ( autotrophs) are typically plants or algae.The three basic ways organisms get food are as producers, consumers and decomposers. ![]() The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow, or a food "web." Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.Ĭonsumer categories based on material eaten (plant: green shades are live, brown shades are dead animal: red shades are live, purple shades are dead or particulate: grey shades) and feeding strategy (gatherer: lighter shade of each color miner: darker shade of each color) ![]() Food chains start at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, move to herbivores at level 2, predators at level 3 and typically finish with carnivores or apex predators at level 4 or 5. The number of steps an organism is from the start of the chain is a measure of its trophic level. A food chain represents a succession of organisms that eat another organism and are, in turn, eaten themselves. ![]() The word trophic derives from the Greek τροφή (trophē) referring to food or feeding. The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. They take nutrients from the soil or the water, and manufacture their own food by photosynthesis, using energy from the sun. The plants in this image, and the algae and phytoplankton in the lake, are primary producers. File:Far Pastures - 52967.jpgįirst trophic level. ![]()
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