Food Chains
What is a food chain?
A food chain is a sequence of links within a food web beginning from a producer species such as grass,tress,fungi etc. and ends with a quaterny consumer also known as the top predator.Hawks,whales,bears and even in cerain food chains humans are considered to be quaterny consumers. For organims, the ability to obtain energy plays a crutial role within survival. A food chain contains many trophic levels, listed down below is a quick explanation to each level.
Trophic Levels:
-Primary Producers:
This level includes organims that are self-efficent, they produce their own food from the sunlight within a process called photosythesis. These organims are called autotrphs. Primary Producers are the starting point of every food chain. Genreally Grass and trees fall under this level.
-Primary Consumers:
Primary Consumers are organims that eat the primary producers. Organims that fall unde this level are normally herbivores;herbivores consume only plant matter.
-Secondary Consumers:
These organism consume primary consumers and are all either carivores or omnivores. Carnivores strictly eat nothing but meat while an omnivores however eats both plants and animals.
-Tertiary Consumers
Tertiary consumers are organims that eat the seconday conusmers. All organims wihtin this level are either carivores or omnivores.
-Quaternity Consumers:
Quaternity Consumers are th end of the food chain. They eat teriary consumers making oransims that fall under this level as the ultimate predator.
Visual Example of a Food Chain:
This illustartion shows a clssic exmaple of a food chain. The food chain begins off with the primary producer, in this illustraion the primary producer is the grass. Then the primary consumer (the chipmunk) eats the primary producer. Chipmunks are ominvores becuase they consume both plant-life and animals. Then the Red-tailed Hawk eats the chipmunk making it the top predator.