FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD WEB

Every organism needs to obtain energy in order to live. For example, plants get energy from the sun, some animals eat plants, and some animals eat other animals.

FOOD CHAIN:

The sequence of who eats whom to obtain their food.

PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE:

A food chain starts with the primary energy source, usually the sun.

PRODUCERS:  

which is used by plants to make their own food. So plants are called producers.

PRIMARY CONSUMERS:

Plants are eaten up by the primary consumers. Usually these primary consumers are Herbivores or Omnivores.

SECONDARY CONSUMERS:

Primary consumers are eaten up by Secondary consumers. These are Carnivores or Omnivores.

ARROWS IN A FOOD CHAIN:

They show the flow of energy. It means, who is eating whom.

 For e.g. we have a food chain:

Here Plant is the producer, since they make the food, which is eaten by cow, so cow is the primary consumer. Now this cow is eaten up by the Lion, which is the secondary consumer.

If you see here, primary consumer is a herbivore and secondary consumer is a carnivore.

The first arrow head is towards the cow which means that cow is eating the plant.

The second arrow head is towards the lion which means lion is eating the cow.

So, arrow head is towards the organism which is eating the organism previous to it.

FOOD WEB

A network of many food chains is called a food web.

DECOMPOSERS

• Decomposers are the last stop on the food chain
• they eat dead things from the ground in order to get nutrients.
• Some of the most common decomposers are bacteria, worms, slugs, snails, and fungi like mushrooms.
• Decomposers are referred as nature’s recyclers because they help keep nutrients moving in food webs.
• Major Decomposers in Deserts is bacteria because they are so small and can live in the air. Some of the other decomposers in the desert are beetles, earth worms and millipedes. 

SCAVENGERS

• Scavengers are also known as decomposers.
• They feed on the dead bodies.
• Some of the popular examples of decomposers are vultures, crows, hyenas, etc.
• It is a common myth that these scavengers are only carnivorous. They are even herbivoresg. termite.
• Scavengers of dead plant material: termites that build nests in grasslands and then collect dead plant material for consumption.