FOOD CHAIN:

A food chain refers to the order of events in an ecosystem, where one living organism eats another
organism, and later that organism is consumed by another larger organism. The flow of nutrients
and energy from one organism to another at different trophic levels forms a food chain.

Fig. 1.1 A Food Chain

Fig 1.1 shows a simple food chain. The number of steps of links in a food chain is restricted usually
to four or five and each stage of transfer of food energy is known as a trophic level.
Following are the parts of a typical food chain, starting from the producers:
● At the base of the food chain lie the primary producers. The primary producers are autotrophs
and are most often photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, or cyanobacteria.
● The organisms that eat the primary producers are called primary consumers. Primary consumers
are usually herbivores, plant-eaters, though they may be algae eaters or bacteria eaters.
● The organisms that eat the primary consumers are called secondary consumers. Secondary
consumers are generally meat-eaters—carnivores.
● The organisms that eat the secondary consumers are called tertiary consumers. These are
carnivore-eating carnivores, like eagles or big fish.
● Some food chains have additional levels, such as quaternary consumers—carnivores that eat
tertiary consumers. Organisms at the very top of a food chain are called apex consumers.
Examples of theses levels can be seen in Fig 1.1.

Types of Food Chain

There are two types of food chains, namely the detritus food chain and the grazing food chain
1. Grazing food chain: This food chain starts with green plants (primary producers) and goes to
herbivores and on to carnivores.
● Phytoplankton‘s→ Zooplanktons →Small fish→ Tuna.
● Phytoplankton‘s→ Zooplanktons→ Fish→ Man.
● Grass→ Rabbit→ Fox→ Tiger.

Fig. A Grazing food chain in a pond ecosystem

2. Detritus food chain: It starts with dead organic matter which the detritivores and decomposers
consume. Partially decomposed dead organic matter and even the decomposers are consumed by
detritivores and their predators.
● Leaves or dead plants→ Soil mites→ Insects→ Birds.
● Dead organic matter→ Bacteria → Insects.
● Dead leaves → Algae→ Fish→ Man.
An example of the detritus food chain is seen in a Mangrove (estuary)
 Fig. A Detritus food chain
Significance of Food Chain

Food chains are important for maintaining and regulating the population size of different animals
and, thus, are instrumental in maintenance of ecological balance.

Biomagnification or Biological Magnification:

Food chains show a unique property of accumulation of certain chemicals. There are several
pesticides, heavy metals, and other chemicals which are non-biodegradable in nature and are not
decomposed by micro-organisms. They keep on passing from one trophic level to another and, at
each successive trophic level, their concentration keeps on increasing. This phenomenon is known
as biomagnification or biological magnification.

FOOD WEB:
Food chains in ecosystems are rarely found to operate as isolated linear sequences. Rather, they
are found to be interconnected and usually form a complex network with several linkages and are
known as food webs. Thus, “food web is a network of food chains where different types of
organisms are connected at different trophic levels, so that there are a number of options of eating
and being eaten at each trophic level.”

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Food web open several pathways for the flow of food energy. It also allows an organism to obtain
its food from two or more types of organisms of the lower trophic level. Therefore, it can be said
that food web helps in maintaining the stability of the ecosystem. More complex food webs bring
stability to the ecosystem as they provide alternative trophic levels.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS:
Ecological pyramids were first studied by a British ecologist Charles Eltan (1927). An Ecological
Pyramid is a graphical representation consisting various trophic levels with producers forming the
base and top occupy the carnivores. In an ecological pyramid the huge number of tiny individuals
form at the base and a few large individuals occupy the top / apex . This formation is known as
ecological pyramid. Hence, all producers (micro & macro plants) belong to the I trophic level; all
primary consumers belong to II trophic level and organisms feeding on these consumers belong to
the III trophic level and so on.
The ecological pyramids are of three types. They are:
1. The pyramid of Numbers (showing population).
2. The pyramid of Biomass (showing total mass of organisms).
3. The pyramid of energy (showing energy flow).
Pyramid of Number:
It shows the relationships among the producers, herbivores and carnivores at successive trophic
levels in terms of their number. Mostly the pyramid of number is straight (or) upright with number
of individuals in successive higher trophic levels goes on decreasing from base to apex. The
maximum number of individuals occurs at the producers ‘level. They support a small number of
herbivores. The herbivores, in turn, support a fewer number of primary carnivores and so on…..
Top carnivores are very few in number.
Ex:- In grassland as well as cropland ecosystems, the number of producers is higher than the
number of carnivores. Hence, the pyramid is upright. However, in case of forest ecosystems, the
pyramid is inverted because the number of primary consumers in forests is higher than the number
of producers.
 Fig. Pyramid of number

Pyramid of Biomass: The amount of organic matter present in environment is called biomass. In
pyramids of biomass, the relationship between different trophic levels is mentioned in terms of
weight of organisms. The pyramid may be upright for grassland ecosystem and inverted for pond
ecosystem.

Fig. Pyramid of Biomass

Pyramid of energy: The amount of energy trapped per unit time and area at different trophic levels
of a food chain with producers forming the base and the top carnivores at the apex is called pyramid
of energy

Fig. Pyramid of Energy

 BALANCED ECOSYSTEM
The ecosystem is a dynamic system, where a lot of event occurs, like plants eaten by animals,
which in turn are eaten by other animals. Water and nutrients flow in and out of the system and
the weather changes. However, despite all these events the ecosystem persists and recovers from
minor disturbances due to homeostasis.
Homeostasis: - All systems in order to operate smoothly need to maintain their existing constant
condition. This capacity of a system to self-regulate or self-maintain itself is called homeostasis.

Factors of balanced ecosystems:

● In a balanced ecosystem, the community of living (biotic) organisms interacts with non-living
(abiotic) features in the environment.
● Abiotic features of ecosystems include precipitation, temperature, landscape, sunlight, soil, water
chemistry, and moisture.
● The types of biotic factors in a balanced ecosystem include primary producers such as plants,
primary consumers such as herbivores, secondary consumers such as carnivores, consumers such
as omnivores that consume both plants and animals, and detritivores that eat decaying organic
matter.
● Biotic factors rely upon abiotic factors to survive.
● Plants require a certain temperature, moisture, and soil chemistry to thrive. Animals rely on those
plants for their food.
● Anything affecting any factor of an ecosystem can throw it off balance and force organisms to
adapt or die off.

Importance of ecological balance:

● Ecological balance ensures the stability of the organisms and environment.

● It creates a conducive environment for organism multiplication and thriving.
● It enhances a stable environment that is free from ecological imbalances such as flood, hunger
caused by drought, windstorms that may wipe out everything, and over hunting of the predators.