What is transferred in a food web
Answers
Food chains and food webs
Every plant and animal species, no matter how big or small, depends to some extent on another plant or animal species for its survival. It could be bees taking pollen from a flower, photosynthesis of plants, deer eating shrub leaves or lions eating the deer.
A food chain shows how energy is transferred from one living organism to another via food. It is important for us to understand how the food chain works so that we know what are the important living organisms that make up the food chain and how the ecology is balanced.
Photosynthesis is only the beginning of the food chain. There are many types of animals that will eat the products of the photosynthesis process. Examples are deer eating shrub leaves, rabbits eating carrots, or worms eating grass. When these animals eat these plant products, food energy and organic compounds are transferred from the plants to the animals.
These animals are in turn eaten by other animals, again transferring energy and organic compounds from one animal to another. So for how many levels does this go on? To follow the food chain to its different levels and know how it works go to this site.
The page also contains names and definitions of terms used to describe the 'players' in the food chain- producers, consumers, herbivores. You can also refer to the diagrammatic representations of food chains, food webs and ecological pyramids.
A food chain describes how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem. At the basic level there are plants that produce the energy, then it moves up to higher-level organisms like herbivores. After that when carnivores eat the herbivores, energy is transferred from one to the other. To understand how this happens visit the link.
In the food chain, energy is transferred from one living organism through another in the form of food. There are primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and decomposers- all part of the food chain. Follow this link for a good introduction to how food chains work. There are links to types of energy and also simple explanations to how photosynthesis is the starting point of the food chain. This site also tells us that because of our eating habits, we are in two food chains- marine and land.
Plants that have photosynthesis are supplying us with the first product of the food chain. Not only that, they are the source for oxygen, the food we eat, our clothes, and even our furniture, among other things. Plants also remove greenhouse gas from the air, provide habitat to many animals.
Therefore we should understand the ecology of the environment with respect to plants. What is their number in terms of individuals (the population), and with respect to other living beings in the environment. Go to this page to see where plants are placed with respect to other living organisms.
In typical grassland, for example, the plants outnumber all other levels in the pyramid combined. However in the forests, other living organisms compete for space with plants. But a balance is maintained in the ecosystem.
There may be special relationships that have evolved within the community in which one particular species grows in obligate association with one other particular species, upon which still others depend. This site explores such relationships.
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Answer:
Energy(in Kcal.)
Explanation:
Within the food chain energy can be passed and transferred from one organism to another. Whilst mammals get their energy sources from food – whether this be eating other animals or eating vegetation; plants get their energy from photosynthesis.
Energy is passed between organisms through the food chain. Food chains start with producers. They are eaten by primary consumers which are in turn eaten by secondary consumers.
They are then eaten by tertiary consumers and in a long food day these can be eaten by quaternary consumers. Each stage of a food chain is called a trophic level.
When food chains are linked together they form a food web.
So how does all this energy get into the food web, and how is it then distributed between organisms?
Plants harvest their energy from the sun during photosynthesis. This energy can then be passed from one organism to another in the food chain.
The organism that obtains energy from sunlight is called the producer. Often these are plants but in some circumstances it can be bacteria.
Even though it is producers that bring energy into the food chain from the sun it is consumers that make up the majority of the food chain. These can be predators, scavengers and parasites.
When a plant is eaten by a primary consumer, only 10% of the energy is passed on.
The low percentage of transferred energy can be attributed to different reasons like some of the organism not being eaten, incomplete digestion of the eaten organism, energy lost in excretory processes or energy lost as heat.
Consumers pass 20% of their energy onto other consumers. This is because they are more efficient than plants at passing on the energy. A lot of the energy is lost in excretion and some is lost in trying to maintain a constant body temperature.
When producers or consumers die they will be fed on by decomposers. Decomposers break complex materials into simple components after producers and consumers die, using up the energy they contain. In this way, minerals and elements needed by plants are released in a form that can be absorbed by them.
Sometimes there are plants that need to be killed. Herbicides will kill plants. However, they need to be used carefully as they could cause damage to plants you do not want to kill.
If you are wanting to get rid of pests (organisms that compete with humans for food and space) you would use pesticides or biological controls.
Pesticides are chemicals that are poisonous to pests. You can also use biological controls (other organisms) to get rid of pests. The organisms used as biological control are normally either predators or parasites of the pest organism. An example of this type of control is the ladybird, which feeds off aphids. Aphids can cause severe damage to crops.
However biological controls often act slower than pesticides. Also they can be bad as the organism itself may become the pest in time.
In the cause of transferring energy in animals, many farmers will restrict movement so that less energy is lost. In turn this energy can be transferred into body mass.
Also, the environment can be kept warm to reduce heat loss from the body.