Jail and food web are important concepts in Ecology and are related to the feeding relationships that occur between living beings.. However, the food web is a more realistic way of portraying the relationships that occur in the middle.
Before explaining what a food chain and web is, it is essential to understand what trophic levels are and what they are. We call trophic levels the different groups of organisms that have similar feeding relationships. Herbivores, for example, are at the same trophic level.
Basically, we can say that there are three trophic levels:
Producers: this level groups the organisms autotrophic, that is, they produce their own food. As an example of producers, we can mention plants and algae, groups of organisms that carry out the process of photosynthesis.
Consumers: beings heterotrophic and therefore unable to produce their own food. We call primary consumers those who feed on the producing organisms. Those that feed on primary consumers are called secondary consumers, those that feed on secondary consumers are called tertiary consumers, and so on.
Decomposers: In this group we have fungi and bacteria, which act on all organisms in the web and food chain. This level is important because, when performing the decomposition, returns nutrients to the environment that can be reused.
→ Food chain
Food chains show the flow of nutrients between trophic levels. In this case, there is always a straight and unidirectional flow and each species occupies only one trophic level.
→ food web
Food webs can be defined as several interconnected food chains. These interconnections show that the same organism can have variable feeding habits and, therefore, occupy different trophic levels. In a web, the flow of energy and nutrients follows several paths.
In the food web, it is possible to verify several interconnected food chains
→ Why does the food web better represent an ecosystem?
The web best represents a ecosystembecause it shows the different relationships that can exist. It is important to say that, in an ecosystem, there is no isolated food chain, as the same organism can occupy different trophic levels. This is the case of omnivores, which, when feeding on vegetables, are primary consumers, but, when feeding on animals, are secondary, tertiary consumers, and so on.
Heads up: When representing a food chain or web, we must use an arrow to indicate the direction of flow of nutrients and energy. This arrow can be read as “serves food for”. Example: Plants → Rabbits → Owls.
Take the opportunity to check out our video lesson on the subject:
