Food Chain and Energy Flow

Food Chain
A food chain is the sequence of who eats whom in a biological
community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition.
A food chain starts with the primary energy source, usually the
sun or boiling-hot deep sea vent.
The next link in the chain is an organism that makes its own
food in the primary energy source an example is the
photosynthetic plants that make their own food from the
sunlight (using a process called photosynthesis) and
chemosynthetic bacteria that make their food energy from the
chemicals in hydrothermal vents, using the process called
chemosynthesis.
Next come organisms that eat the autotrophs: these
organisms are called herbivores or primary consumers.
The next link in the chain is the animals that eat the herbivores
these are called secondary consumers. In turn, these
animals are eaten by larger predators which we call tertiary
consumers.
The tertiary consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers.
Each food chain ends with a top predator and animal with no
natural enemies (like an alligator, hawk, or polar bear).
The arrows in a food chain show how flow of the energy, from
the sun or hydrothermal vent to a predator. As the energy
flows from organism to organism, energy is lost in each step. A
network of many food chains is called a food web.
EXAMPLES OF FOOD CHAIN
Sun to Grass to Grasshopper to Frog to Snake to Hawk
Corn to chicken to Snake to Man to Decomposer
Phytoplankton to crustacean/shrimp to Fish to Dolphin to Killer
whale

Types of food chain

Grazing food chain- Primary producers are the living green
plants which are grazed on by grazing animas. It is found in
aquatic and grassland ecosystem. The grazing food chain
begins with the photosynthetic fixation of light, carbon dioxide,
and water by plants (primary producers) that produce sugar
and other organic molecules. Once produced, these
compounds can be used to create the various types of plant
tissues.
E.g. of aquatic ecosystem:
PhytoplanktonZooplankton Fish Hawk
E.g. grassland ecosystem
Grass Rabbit Fox Wolf Tiger
Grass Grasshopper Frog Snake Hawk
Characteristics of Grazing Food Chain
These are directly dependent upon dollar radiations as the
primary source of energy and the producers (green plants)
synthesize their plant biomass by the process of
photosynthesis. Producers form the first trophic level.
Herbivores or primary consumers eat upon the producers and
form the second trophic level.
Herbivores are in turn eaten by different categories of
carnivores forming the higher trophic levels.
Grazing food chains are longer food chains and they always
end at decomposer level.
Detrital food chain- this type of food chain starts from dead
organic matter and so it is less dependent on solar energy.
The dead organic matter is broken down into simple nutrients
by microorganisms like fungi and bacteria. This type of food
chain is found in forest ecosystem.

Dead organic matter Detritivores predator

Ex. Dead plant to Mushroom to Chicken

The food relationship among different organism is an

ecosystem.

Characteristics of Detritus Food chain

Primary source of energy is dead organic matter called
detritus which are fallen leaves, plant parts or dead animal
bodies.

The food chains are the living components of biosphere

These are the vehicles of transfer of energy from one level to
another.

Primary consumers are detritivores including protozoans,

bacteria, fungi, etc. which feed upon the detritus saprophytic
ally.
Detritivores are in turn eaten by secondary consumers such as
insect6 larvae, nematodes, etc.
Detritus food chains are generally shorter than grazing food
chains
In nature, detritus food chains are indispensable as the dead
organic matter of grazing food chain is acted upon by the
detritivores to recycle the inorganic elements into the
ecosystem.
Parasitic food Chain-In this type of food chain either the
producer or the consumer is parasitized and therefore the food
passes to the smaller organism. The energy transfer through
this kind of food chain is significant.
Producer Herbivores Parasite Hyperparasites
Tree Fruit eating birds Lice and bugs Bacteria and fungi
Significance of Food chain
The studies of food chains help in understanding some of the
important aspects of the ecosystem in particular and
environment in general.

Through the food chains, transfer of materials and nutrients

also takes place.
The movement of some toxic substances in the ecosystem
sprayed to kill to the pests and insects, and also other
organisms can be studied.
They help in maintaining the ecological balance.
ENERGY FLOW
In Ecology, energy flow, also called calorific flow, refers to the
flow of energy through a food chain. In an ecosystem,
ecologists seek to quantify the relative importance of different
components of species and feeding relationships. It also refers
to the spontaneous transformation of energy flowing in a
complex ecosystem through food chain or a food web in which
the sun is the primary source.
Given example of the diagram showed:
SUN GRASS GRASSHOPPER BIRD MAN
DECOMPOSER
Wherein the sun is the source with 100% energy , pass to the
frays which will only have 80% of energy, eaten by the
grasshopper which will receive 60% of energy, eaten by bird
which will receive 40% energy, eaten by man with 20% energy
and by decomposers with only 10% of energy received.
*We can see that the energy is diminishing since the energy
taken by taken by consumers were already taken by
producers. The energy being used is called mechanical
energy, while the stored energy being passed in the chain is
called chemical energy.