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FOOD CHAIN

Submitted by
Sreeja.J.S
Natural science 2014
KUCTE Kumarapuram

Introduction
The living organism of a biotic community
cannot live alone. They not only interact
among themselves, but also have funcional
relationship with their non-living
environment.A food chain shows the relation
among plants, animals and other organism in
an ecosystem .Food chain outline who eats
what.In food chain energy is transferred from
one organism to other
ECOSYSTEM
An ecosystem refers to all the animals and
plants found in one place and the way they all
live together
Different plants and animals live in different
ecosystem
Different ecosystem can be close together.
Some animals belong to several ecosystems
ENVIRONMENT
Everything that affects an animal makes up its
environment
Some total of all biotic and abiotic factors that
surround and potentially influence an organism
called environment.
Every living things, including people , has an
effect upon the environment
Food Chain
In a food chain energy sometimes refers to
food and water, and other times refers to
sunlight or other types of energy.
Food chains maintain the balance of life on
earth.
If one element of a food chain disappears or
increases greatly, the entire food chain will be
affected.
FOOD CHAIN A REMINDER
A food chain shows which animals eat other
animal or plants
Plants dont eat things
A food chain starts with what gets eaten and
the arrows point towards what does the eating.
Food chain only go in one direction.
How does a food chain
work?
All food chains begin with the sun.
The sun provides energy for plants to grow and
light required by people and other animals to
function.

Trophic Level
An organisms position in a food chain is
called its trophic level. (you can think of it as a
food level)
Producers are plants, comprising the first
trophic level in a food chain.
Producers are unique because they use the
energy from the sun plus water and carbon
dioxide to create food for themselves through a
process called photosynthesis.
Producers
Because they make food for themselves
automatically, producers are called autotrophs.
Plants are called producers because they
produce the energy for all other members of a
food chain.
Examples of producers include flowers,
grasses, and leaves.
Members of high food chain levels are called
consumers.
Consumers do exactly what their name implies
they consume (eat).
They are Heterotrophs
They food of consumers consist of organic
compounds produced by living organisms

Herbivores : eat only plants or plant products.
Examples of herbivores are mice,
grasshoppers, rabbits, deer, beavers, moose,
cows, and goats.

Carnivores: eat only other animals. Examples
of carnivores are foxes, frogs, snakes, spiders,
and hawks.

Omnivores: eat both plants and animals.
People are omnivores because we eat both
plants (like fruits and vegetables) and animals
(like chicken or beef). Other examples of
omnivores are bears, monkeys, and turtles .
Primary consumers are those that feed directly
from producers. Because they only eat plants
they are herbivores. (Squirrel, elk, grasshoppers)
Secondary consumers feed on primary
consumers. Secondary consumers can be
carnivores or omnivores depending on their
environment. (birds, frogs, cats)
Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers,
and can be carnivores or omnivores. (wolves, and
owls)

Decomposers are the last link in the food
chain.
The non green organisms which live on the
dead and decaying parts of producers and
consumers, and derive food from them are
called Decomposers
Some fungi and bacteria are the major
examples for decomposers
In all ecosystem there are two types of food
chain. They are Grazing food chain and
Detritus food chain
Grazing food chain:It is a type of food chain
which starts from producers,goes to
herbivores, and on to carnivores
Detritus food chain:It starts with dead organic
matter and passes through detritus-feeding
organisms in soil to organism feeding on
detritus-feeders.
Types of food chain
CHARACTERISTICS OF FOOD
CHAIN
A food chain is always straight and proceeds in
a progressing straight line.
In food chain, there is repeated eating in which
each group eats the smaller one and is eaten by
the larger one.
The plants and animals which depend
successively on one another form the limbs of
food chain
In a food chain, there is unidirectional flow of
energy from sun to producers.
Omnivores generally occupy more than one
trophic level in food chain.
Some organism (eg. Man) occupy more than
one trophic level in food chain.
Usually there are 4 or 5 trophic levels in the
food chain.

There are many different food chains on earth.
This one features the Great horned owl at the
top. Other food chains work just like this one
but with other plants and animals.
All food chains begin when the energy of the
sun reaches the earth. The energy carried in
the suns light, along with water and carbon
dioxide, allows plants to grow, like the grass
on your smallest tube.


The grass is eaten by primary consumers, such
as the grasshopper on your second tube.
(Students will now make grasshopper eat
grass)
All primary consumers are herbivores that eat
only plants.


The grasshopper is then eaten by a mouse(on
the next largest tube), a secondary consumer.
(students now have mouse eat grasshopper)
Secondary consumers can be either carnivores
or omnivores, but not herbivores.
Carnivores eat only meat and omnivores eat
both meat and plants.

Next, the mouse is eaten by the snake.
(students now have snake eat mouse).
The snake can be considered either a
secondary or tertiary consumer. If it were at
the top of the food chain it would be tertiary,
but since we know it is not we will consider it
a secondary consumer.

Finally, the Great horned owl eats the snake.
(students will now have the owl eat the snake).
The owl is a tertiary consumer and resides at
the top of the food chain (it isnt eaten by
another animal in our food chain).

Eventually, the owl will die and its body will
be decomposed by bacteria and fungi.
Through decomposition, nutrients from the
owls body will go back into the soil and
provide nutrients that will allow many new
plants (producers) to grow, beginning the cycle
again.
1. Organism living in a habitat depend on each
other
2. If one part of a food chain dies out or is
greatly reduced,the consumers have to find
alternative food, move away, or starve.
3. This then affected more consumers in same
way.
conclusion
In an ecosystem, there is an interdependence
between its components .It is in our own best
interest to look after the world we live in.If a
habitat is lost or damaged, it has an effect on
everything else, even if we do not see or
understand it straight away. Food chain has a
key role to maintain to balancing our
environments. So if something becomes
extinct, its gone forever!
REFERENCE
Dr. B.B Arora and A. K Sabharwal (2010): A
text book of Biology std: XII, Modern
publication
Dr. E. Valsala kumar (2004): A text book of
botany , Trivandrum publication
Kumar Pushkar and Dr A.P Singh (2011): A
text book of CSIR-UGC Life science, Upkar
publication

thank you

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