Food Chains, Food Webs, and Trophic Levels

These flashcards cover essential concepts related to food chains, food webs, and trophic levels.

What is a food chain?

A sequence of feeding interactions between organisms in a given habitat.

What is a producer in a food chain?

An organism that makes its own food through processes like photosynthesis.

Who is considered a primary consumer?

An organism that eats producers, typically herbivores like rabbits.

What is a secondary consumer?

An organism that feeds on primary consumers, such as carnivores like leopards.

Define a tertiary consumer.

An organism that feeds on secondary consumers, for example, lions.

What role do decomposers play in a food chain?

They break down organism remains, returning nutrients to the soil.

What is a food web?

A system of independent and interlocking food chains in a given habitat.

How does a change in one component of a food web affect the entire web?

It can cause a ripple effect, impacting various organisms due to their interlinked feeding relationships.

What is a trophic level?

The position of an organism in a food chain or food web, describing its feeding relationship.

What might happen to a food web during a bout of dehydration?

It could disrupt the food chain, causing the decline of species reliant on affected organisms.