food cycle

Food Chains Food webs connect many different food chains, and many different trophic levels. Food webs can support food chains that are long and complicated, or very short. For example, grass in a forest clearing produces its own food through photosynthesis. A rabbit eats the grass. A fox eats the rabbit. When the fox dies, decomposers such as worms and mushrooms break down its body, returning it to the soil where it provides nutrients for plants like grass.    This short food chain is one part of the forest's food web. Another food chain in the same ecosystem might involve completely different organisms. A caterpillar may eat the leaves of a tree in the forest. A bird such as a sparrow may eat the caterpillar. A snake may then prey on the sparrow. An eagle, an  apex predator , may prey on the snake. Yet another bird, a vulture, consumes the body of the dead eagle. Finally, bacteria in the soil decompose the remains.

Detritivores and Decomposers Detritivores and decomposers make up the last part of food chains. Detritivores are organisms that eat nonliving  plant  and animal  remains . For example, scavengers such as vultures eat dead animals. Dung beetles eat animal  feces . Decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, complete the food chain. Decomposers turn organic wastes, such as decaying plants, into  inorganic  materials, such as nutrient-rich soil. They complete the cycle of life, returning nutrients to the soil or oceans for use by autotrophs. This starts a whole new series of food chains. 

In an ocean ecosystem, many types of fish and turtles are herbivores that eat algae and  seagrass . In  kelp  forests, seaweeds known as giant kelp provide shelter and food for an entire ecosystem. Sea urchins are powerful primary consumers in kelp forests. These small herbivores eat dozens of kilograms (pounds) of giant kelp every day. Secondary consumers eat herbivores. They are at the third trophic level. In a desert ecosystem, a  secondary consumer  may be a snake that eats a mouse. In the kelp  forest , sea otters are secondary consumers that hunt sea urchins. Tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers. They are at the fourth trophic level. In the desert ecosystem, an owl or eagle may  prey  on a snake.  There may be more levels of consumers before a chain finally reaches its  top predator . Top predators, also called apex predators, eat other consumers. They may be at the fourth or fifth trophic level. They have no na...

A  food web  consists of all the food chains in a single  ecosystem . Each living thing in an ecosystem is part of  multiple  food chains. Each  food chain  is one possible path that  energy  and nutrients may take as they move through the ecosystem. All of the interconnected and overlapping food chains in an ecosystem make up a food web Trophic Levels Organisms in food webs are grouped into categories called trophic levels. Roughly speaking, these levels are divided into producers (first  trophic level ), consumers, and decomposers (last trophic level).  Producers Producers make up the first trophic level. Producers, also known as autotrophs, make their own food and do not depend on any other organism for nutrition. Most autotrophs use a process called  photosynthesis  to create food (a  nutrient  called  glucose ) from  sunlight ,  carbon  diox...

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 ). A food chain also shows how the organisms are related to each other by the food they eat. Each level of a food chain represents a different  trophic level . A food chain differs from a food web because the complex network of  different animals ' feeding relations are aggregated and the chain only follows a direct, linear pathway of  one animal at a time . Natural interconnections between food chains make it a food web. A common metric used to quantify food web troph...

its all starting when an animal eats grass then an animal eats the second one the grass is called the producer the animals are called consumers