FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD WEB

 The process of life on earth follows a similar pattern for all organisms. All life forms require energy to run its day to day activities such as movement, communication, seeing and hearing. The ultimate source of energy for all living organisms is sun. The solar energy from the sun is trapped by the photosynthesizing plants, which are called as producers. Plants can trap up to 2% of solar energy reaching the earth. The light  energy trapped by plants is converted and stored as chemical energy in the form of biomolecules such as starch, glucose etc. 

SUN--------> LIGHT ENERGY---------> PLANTS---------PHOTOSYNTHEIS--------> CHEMICAL ENERGY

The herbivores eat photosynthesizing plants such as grasses, herbs etc. These herbivores which directly depend upon plants are called primary consumers. For example, grass hopper, rabbit, cow, goat. The herbivores are eaten by carnivores, such as snake, frog and lizard. These carnivores are eaten by large carnivores such as lion, tiger and hawk. Finally when all these organisms die, the dead body is eaten by detrivore animals such as millipedes, dung flies, worms etc or decayed by fungi and bacteria. 

This linear chain of organisms in the ecosystems, which are connected to each other by the process of eating and being eaten is called food chain.

The following are examples;

Maize---> Locust---> Lizard---> Snake

Corn--> Rat--> Owl.

Carrot-->Rabbit-->Fox--> Lion

Food chains are of two types:

1. Grazing food chain- The food chain that starts from  green plants and depend on solar radiation is called grazing food chain. Most of the food chains in the ecosystems are of this type.

2. Detritus food chain- The food chain that starts from a dead organic matter and less dependent on solar energy is termed detritus food chain. This mainly involves microbes, detrivores and their predators.

FOOD WEB 

In nature, we cannot find linear food chains, because organisms eat multiple types of food and eaten by different types of animals. In real, the process of eating and being eaten forms a web or organisms which are interdependent and forms a cluster of different food chains so that an interconnecting food web is formed. 

A food web is a collective representation of all food chains in an ecosystem.

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