What Is Food Chain & Food Web?
When plants and animals feed on the other natural life within an ecosystem, they are a part of a food web. A food chain is a part of a food web. To understand a food web and a food chain, learn about the structure of each and the concepts they share.
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Definitions
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Plants, animals and fungi create energy that is transferred when one consumes another. Find a food chain by following the energy transfer from one source to the next. Bob Pflugfelder, a science teacher featured on TV and in magazines, explains on the Science Bob website the difference between a food chain and a food web: "Food webs show how plants and animals are connected in many ways to help them all survive. Food chains follow just one path of energy as animals find food."
Sizes
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Food chains at their biggest are only four or five steps long, according to TutorVista. The example given is one where grass is eaten by a grasshopper, which is eaten by a frog, which is eaten by a snake, which is eaten by a hawk. A food web has many individual plants being eaten by different insects or animals in a larger interconnected pattern.
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Trophic Levels
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Trophic level refers to the role of each member of the food chain or food web. As explained on Science Clarified, the three main trophic levels are: producers, consumers, and decomposers. Plants are producers, also known as autotrophs because they use photosynthesis to make their food. The consumers, also called heterotrophs, eat producers and other consumers to stay alive. The decomposers feed on dead material and return the nutrients to the earth for use by the producers.
Feeding Classifications
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Another way to classify members of the food chain or food web is by the type of food they eat. Producers take non-living material and create energy from it. Herbivores eat only plants. Carnivores eat other animals. Omnivores, such as humans, eat either animals or plants. This is related to the trophic levels and, according to Planet Pals, the final step of the food chain is the role of decomposers that feed on dead plants and animals.
Energy Levels
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The levels of energy transfer from one member of the food chain or web to the next are designated as primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary consumers are the ones that eat the plants. The secondary producers are animals that eat the primary consumers. As discussed on Science Clarified, "Other higher-level consumers are tertiary consumers or third-order consumers, and eat further up on the food web or perhaps on many levels."
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit grass image by Brett Bouwer from Fotolia.com
