What is a Food Chain?
- Transfer of food energy from green plants (producers) through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten link is called a food chain. E.g. Grasses → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk/Eagle.
- Each step in the food chain is called trophic level.
- A food chain starts with producers and ends with top carnivores.
Types of Food Chain
- Grazing Food chain
- The consumers which start the food chain, utilising the plant or plant part as their food, constitute the grazing food chain.
- Examples
- Terrestrial Ecosystem: The grass is eaten by a caterpillar, which is eaten by a lizard and lizard is eaten by a snake.
- Aquatic Ecosystem: Phytoplankton (primary producers) are eaten by zooplanktons which are eaten by fishes and fishes are eaten by pelicans.
- Detritus Food Chain
- This type of food chain starts from the organic matter of dead and decaying animals and plant bodies from the grazing food chain.
- Dead organic matter or detritus-feeding organisms are called detritus or decomposers.
- The detritus are eaten by predators.
