Food chains
The table describes some common terms used to describe living things in their environment:
| Term | Description |
| Environment | All the conditions that surround a living organism |
| Habitat | The place where an organism lives |
| Population | All the members of a single species that live in a habitat |
| Community | All the populations of different organisms that live together in a habitat |
| Ecosystem | A community and the habitat in which organisms live |
| Term | Environment |
|---|---|
| Description | All the conditions that surround a living organism |
| Term | Habitat |
|---|---|
| Description | The place where an organism lives |
| Term | Population |
|---|---|
| Description | All the members of a single species that live in a habitat |
| Term | Community |
|---|---|
| Description | All the populations of different organisms that live together in a habitat |
| Term | Ecosystem |
|---|---|
| Description | A community and the habitat in which organisms live |
A A sequence (usually shown as a diagram) of feeding relationships between organisms, showing which organisms eat what and the movement of energy through trophic levels. shows the different species of an organism in an ecosystem, and what eats what.
Producers and consumers
A food chain always starts with a Plants that begin food chains by making energy from carbon dioxide and water., an organism that makes food. This is usually a green plant, because plants can make their own food by photosynthesis.
A food chain ends with a An organism that obtains its energy by eating other organisms., an animal that eats a plant or another animal.
Here is an example of a simple food chain:
grass → cow → human
Other words in a food chain
There are several words used to describe the organisms in a food chain. Study this food chain:
The plant is the producer and the animals are consumers:
- the first consumer in the chain is also called the The name given to an organism that eats a producer. A herbivore.
- the next one is the An organism that obtains its energy by eating the primary consumer.
- the one after that is the tertiary consumer
A consumer that only eats plants is called a herbivore, and a consumer that only eats other animals is called a carnivore. An omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and animals.
Beekeeper Graham Royal talks about the importance of bees to the food chain.
Predators and prey
A predator is an animal that hunts and eats other animals, and the prey is the animal that gets eaten by the predator. In the food chain above:
- the frog is a predator and the grasshopper is its prey
- the hawk is a predator and the frog is its prey
A simple food chain in a broadleaf forest is described
