Trophic levels

Trophic level or Food level

• Each step or level of the food chain forms a trophic
level
• The autotrophs or the producers are the first
trophic level. They fix up the solar energy and
make it available for heterotrophs or the
consumers
• The herbivores or the primary consumers come at
the second.
• Small carnivores or sec. consumers at the 3rd
trophic level
• Larger carnivores or the tertiary consumers comes
in 4th trophic level
• Eg. Food chain operating in the grassland
which is shown below:
Bird
( 4th Trophic level )

Frog
(3rd Trophic level )

Insect
(2nd Trophic level )

Grass
(1st Trophic level )

Trophic level in a food chain

 Food chain
In a food chain,
• There is repeated eating process in food chain.
• In which each group eats the smaller one and is
eaten by larger one. Thus it involves a nutritive
interaction between the biotic compo. of
ecosystem
• The plant and animals which depend successively on
one another.
• There is unidirectional flow of energy from sun to
producers and then to series of consumers of
various types.
• Thus, a food chain is always straight and proceeds in
a progressing straight line
e) Usually about 70%-90% potential energy is lost as
heat at each transfer on the basis of 2nd law of
thermodynamics (transformation of energy involves
loss of unavailable energy )

f) Usually there are 4 or 5 trophic levels. Shorter

food chain provide greater energy and vice versa.

g) Omnivores occupy more than one trophic level

and, some organisms occupy different trophic
position in different food chains
In a four level , only 0.1% of fixed energy ultimately
reaches the top.

Fig: Forest Food chain

 Types of food chain
• There are 3 types of food chain

1. Grazing food chain

2. Parasitic food chain
3. Detritus or Saprophytic food chain
 Grazing food chain
Producers
Plants

Herbivores
Grasshopper

Primary
consumer
Frog

secondary
carnivores
Eagle
 parasitic food chain
• Parasitic food chain is a type of food chain
that starts from plant
• From the plant food is transferred to
herbivores or carnivores and then to parasite
by the process of eating and being eaten.
Detritus or Saprophytic food chain

• Fallen leaves and dead

Detritus bodies

• Fungi, bacteria and

Detritivore protozoans( earthworms)

• Small carnivores eg.

Detritus
consumers
Insect, black birds
 Food web
• A food web or food cycle depicts feeding
connections means what eats what in an
ecological community.
• Thus a network of food chain which are
interconnected at various trophic levels is known
as food web.
• It is not independent (interdependent each
other) & linear arrangement
• Types :
1. Terrestrial food web and
2. Aquatic food web
terrestrial food web
Aquatic food web
 difference between food chain and
food web
Food chain Food web

Food chain is the straight It consists of number of inter

single path of transfer of food connected food chains through
energy in the ecosystem which food energy is passed in
the ecosystem

Members of higher trophic Members of higher trophic

level feed upon a single type of level can feed as a number of
organism of level alternative organisms of the
lower trophic level

Presence of food web increases

the stability of the ecosystem
 Ecological Pyramids
• An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation
of an ecological parameter like number, biomass or
energy present in various trophic levels of food chain
• Ecological pyramids could be upright, or inversed
• In each ecological pyramid producers forms the base
and top carnivores
• There are 3 impot. parameters of each trophic level
in food chain
i. number of individuals
ii. amount of biomass and
iii. amount of energy
So there are 3 types of pyramids according to
parameters
 Pyramid of Number
• The number of organisms in a food chain can be
represented graphically in a pyramid. Each bar
represents the number of individuals at each
trophic level in the food chain
• It can be upright and inverted
• In an upright pyramid of number, the number of
organisms generally decreases from the bottom to
top.
• This generally occurs in grassland and pond
ecosystems where the plants (usually the grasses)
occupy the base of the pyramid. The succeeding
levels of the pyramid include the consumers.
• An inverted pyramid of number, on the other
hand, is just the opposite of the former.
• It is usually observed in tree ecosystems with
the trees as the producers and the insects as
consumers
 Pyramid of Biomass
• Biomass is defined as the amount of biomass per
unit area product of the living material present in an
organism and the total number of organisms
present) in a specific trophic level.
• In less complicated terms, it refers to the food
available for the succeeding trophic level.
• For instance, a pyramid of biomass is a depiction of
the amount of food available and how much energy
is being passed on at each trophic level.
• Most the biomass that animals consume is used to
provide the energy, converted to new tissues, or
just remain undigested.
• Most of pyramids are in a true pyramidal shape with
biomass in the lower trophic levels are greater than
the trophic levels above them.
• It also can have two forms: upright and inverted.
• Terrestrial ecosystems are characterized by an
upright pyramid of biomass having a larger base
(primary producers) with the smaller trophic levels
(consumers) located at the top.
• The pyramids of aquatic ecosystem are opposite
means inverted position.
• This is because the phytoplankton producers (with
generally smaller biomass) are located at the base
while the consumers having larger biomass are
located at the top of the pyramid.
 Pyramid of Energy
• The pyramid of energy that shows the overall
energy in the ecosystem and how much energy is
required by organisms as it flows up the higher
trophic levels.
• The pattern of the energy flow in this type of
pyramid is based on the principles of
thermodynamics. This law says that energy is
neither be created nor destroyed; only transformed
into another form.
• It shows that energy is transferred from
lower trophic levels with more amount of
energy (producers) to higher ones
(consumers) and converted in the biomass
• It can be concluded that organisms found at
the highest trophic levels of shorter food
chains bear a greater amount of energy than
the ones found in longer ones.
• Unlike the first two ecological pyramids, the
pyramid of energy is always illustrated in an
upright position, with the largest energy
carriers at the base.