Food chain
A food chain is an idea developed by a scientist named Charles Elton in 1927. He described the way plants get energy from sunlight, plant-eating animals get their energy from eating plants, and meat-eating animals get their energy from eating other animals. The idea of a chain means that all these animals are linked together, so anything that affects one link in the chain affects everything in the chain. ]The key concept that we need to learn from food chains, food webs and food pyramids is the transfer of energy. For all life on earth there is only one available source of energy, the sun. Furthermore, only plants can change this energy into a form that can be used by animals. All plants rely either directly or indirectly on plants for their energy. Plants feed upon sunlight. Only plants have the ability to convert sunlight into food that they and animals can use. Feeding levels are also called trophic levels. The word "trophic" is a Greek word for nourishment. To determine the trophic level, we count the number of energy transfers. Green plants are at the first trophic, or nourishment, level because there has been one transfer of energy, from the sun to the plants.The first link in the chain, the plant, is called the
When talking about the real world, it is more common to think of food webs. Then the small fish were eaten by larger fish, and the larger fish were eaten by birds such as ospreys. Rather it is the amount of organic energy converted into actual biomass. In most terrestrial ecosystems, temperature and soil oxygen and moisture content tend to be the primary variables controlling the activities of decomposers. Normally, ecosystems have about four or five trophic levels. The end products of anaerobic decomposition include molecules such as carbon dioxide, water, and humus. Tertiary consumers or secondary carnivores are animals that receive their organic energy by consuming primary carnivores. Decomposers tend to always be active, processing large amounts of organic matter and releasing a great deal of energy mostly as heat from metabolic activities. Once produced, these compounds can be used to create the various types of plant tissues. Decomposers in most ecosystems process large amounts of organic matter, converting it back into its inorganic nutrient form. As the organic matter passes through their digestive system, it is subjected to digestive enzymes and the grinding action of mineral soil particles. In these cases aerobic respiration cannot take place, and the breakdown of organic compounds and energy extraction must then proceed by ananaerobic means like fermentation. Ospreys that were affected by it laid eggs with unusually thin and soft shells, and often their chicks didn't hatch properly. Finally, detritivores live in environments that are rich in scattered food particles such as the soil or a sea bed. For example, look at a simple chain in which grass uses sunlight to produce sugars and proteins so it can grow.
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,
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