Trophic Levels

• Trophic levels


  The different stages of a food chain, consisting of one or more organisms that perform a specific role
• Trophic levels


  1. Numbered in order based on how far along the food chain the organisms are

  2. Trophic level 1 - Producers

  3. Trophic level 2 - Primary consumers

  4. Trophic level 3 - Secondary consumers

  5. Trophic level 4 - Tertiary consumers
• Producers


  Organisms at the starting point of a food chain, e.g. plants and algae, that make their own food by photosynthesis
• Primary consumers


  Herbivores that eat the plants and algae
• Secondary consumers


  Carnivores that eat the primary consumers
• Tertiary consumers


  Carnivores that eat other carnivores (the secondary consumers)
• Apex predators


  Carnivores at the top of the food chain with no predators
• There can be more than four trophic levels in a food chain, but there are only usually 4 or 5 because so much energy is lost from the food chain at each trophic level
• Decomposers


  Bacteria and fungi that decompose any dead plant or animal material left in an environment by secreting enzymes that break it down into small soluble food molecules
• Decomposers play an important role in ecosystems by releasing nutrients into the environment which the producers need in order to grow