Food Chain vs Food Web

Food Chain

• Definition: A straight, single pathway through which food energy travels in an ecosystem.
• Components:
  • Autotrophs/Producers: Trees and plants that produce their own food.
  • Primary Consumers: Herbivorous animals that feed on plants and trees.
  • Secondary Consumers: Carnivorous animals that feed on herbivorous animals.
• Characteristics:
  • Forms a linear chain.
  • Energy travels from producers to primary consumers and then to secondary consumers.
  • High-level organisms feed upon a single type of low-level organisms.
• Example:
  • Tree (Producer) → Herbivore (Primary Consumer) → Carnivore (Secondary Consumer)

Food Web

• Definition: A complex network of many food chains interacting with each other.
• Characteristics:
  • Species in a community interact directly and indirectly with species of other communities.
  • Indirect interaction often occurs because of a third species.
  • Comprised of multiple interlinked food chains.
• Examples:
  • Terrestrial Ecosystem:
    • Plants → Insect Pollinators (Bees, Grasshoppers, etc.) → Birds, Snakes, Rats
    • Plants → Rabbit, Squirrel, Deer → Birds, Fox
    • Birds, Fox eat species from both food chains, forming a food web.
  • Aquatic Ecosystem:
    • Fish eat microorganisms, insects, plants, and leaves.
    • Small fish feed on insects and plants, then get eaten by bigger fish.
    • Interaction between aquatic and terrestrial food chains (Fish eat insects from both ecosystems).
• Functions: Reveals patterns of energy flow through different species and ecosystems.