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.
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.
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