Feeding Relationships

Feeding relationships show the link between living organisms based on their feeding habits and how energy is transferred from one organism to another.

Food chains depict the direct line of food energy from one organism to the next in an ecosystem.
A typical food chain might follow a pattern like this: plants (producers) -> herbivore (primary consumer) -> carnivore (secondary consumer).
The arrows in the food chain indicate the direction of energy transfer.
At each stage, some energy is lost to the environment mainly as heat and waste; only around 10% of the energy is transferred to the next level.

Food webs are interconnected food chains in an ecosystem, depicting a more accurate representation of feeding relationships.
They demonstrate how a change in population of one organism can affect several other species in the ecosystem.

Each stage in a food chain or web is called a trophic level.
Producers make up the first trophic level, followed by consumers: primary, secondary, and so on.
The energy decreases as it moves up the trophic levels due to energy loss in forms of heat, movement, and waste products.
Understanding trophic levels helps show the flow of energy in ecosystems and the balance of organisms.

A pyramid of numbers shows the count of organisms at each trophic level.
A pyramid of biomass shows the total mass of organisms at each stage of a food chain.
Both pyramids help demonstrate the energy flow in an ecosystem, but a pyramid of biomass is a more accurate representation because it accounts for the total energy content.
Both pyramids are typically larger at the base and get smaller towards the top, reflecting the energy loss at each level.

Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, effectively returning essential nutrients back to the environment.
They are critical in the ecosystem as they help in the recycling of nutrients and maintaining soil fertility.