food Chains and food webs (science)

• A food Chain shows the relationship of feeding between organisms in the environment
• the first member on a food Chian is called a PRODUCER
• All the other members are called CONSUMERS. They are the ones that eat the producers and get the energy from them.
• consumers could be herbivores, carnivores or omnivores
• • Herbivores: animals that feed on plant materials
• • Carnivores: Animals that eat other animals.
• • omnivores: animals that eat both plants and animals
• eg: grass [producer] - caterpillar [primary consumer] - bird [secondary consumer] - snake [tertiary consumer]
• A simple food web is not normally found in the community. Because most organisms feed on many different things a food web is a single diagram showing inter-connected food Chains.
• living organisms are constantly interacting with each other: some important terms that are used.
• • a habitat: the place where organism lives.
• • species: a group of organisms that have the same ancestry; that closely resemble each other and can be inter breed to produce offspring
• • population: it is made up of all members of a species living together in a particular habitat
• • community: all the population of different species living in a particular area
• • Ecosystem: a community of living organisms interacting with each other and their environment $examples are a pond, coral reef, swamp or forest$
• DECOMPOSER: a group of organisms that are present in all ecosystems.

  They are responsible for recycling dead plants and animals. THEY ARE MICROORGAMISMS.

  
  

  eg: bacteria and fungi which feed on dead organic matter.

  During the process, they release carbon dioxide and minerals back to the environment

  
  

  WHICH CAN BE RE-ABSORBED BY PLANTS.
• • scavenger: this group feeds on dead plants and animals.$eg: vultures, corbeau$
• prey: any plant or animal that is eaten by predators. eg: rabbit, deer, fish, bird, insect, etc.
• predator: an animal that kills another animal to eat its flesh. eg: lion, tiger, snake, eagle, hawk, owl, crocodile, shark, etc.
• Food web

  
• Food web in an aquatic environment