The Food Cycle & Food Chains Posters - Set of 2 | Science Posters | Gloss Paper measuring 850mm x 594mm (A1) | Science Charts for the Classroom | Education Charts by Daydream Education

Product Information

The food chain doesn’t show how energy moves in the best way. But the food web is able to show how energy flows because it shows how different organisms interact with each other. In a food chain, each organism is at a different trophic level, which is determined by how many energy transfers separate it from the starting point of the chain. The food chain is a straight succession of creatures in which nutrients and energy are passed from one to the next. The 10 percent energy rule states that of the energy available at one trophic level, only about 10 percent of the energy is transferred to the next trophic level. Because of this 10% energy rule, the food chain can be sustained only up to 4-5 trophic level. Difference between the Food web and Food chain Depending on the environment in which they live, food chains can be long or short. But if a food chain is too long, the energy that gets passed along will be less useful to the animal at the end of the chain because some energy is lost at each step.

In the 10th century, a scientist and philosopher named Al-Jahiz came up with the idea of the food chain. In 1927, Charles Elton wrote a book that popularised Al-ideas Jahiz’s and also came up with the idea of the food web. A food web shows how all the food chains in a certain area connect to each other. Algae or water plants can be the producers in a pond ecosystem. Small insects or fish eat these plants and algae. Large fish eat these small insects or fish. Then, birds or animals that eat fish will eat big fish, creating a chain.In the meadow ecosystem shown below, for example, there is a grazing food web made up of plants and animals that feeds a detrital food web made up of bacteria, fungi, and detritovores. Both the food chain and food web demonstrate the flow of energy from one trophic level to another in a complex manner. This energy flow determines the various ecological processes and maintains the circulation of nutrients within the ecosystem.

Ecologists have made and tested hypotheses about the nature of ecological patterns related to food chain length. For example, they have thought that the length of a food chain increases with the size of an ecosystem, that energy decreases at each level, or that long food chains are unstable.Each of the above groups is called a “trophic level,” and it shows how many energy and nutrient transfers, or “consumption steps,” are between an organism and the energy source that started the food chain, such as light. As we’ll see below, it’s not always easy to put organisms in the right trophic level. People are omnivores, which means they can eat both plants and animals. What is Food Web? Primary consumers - Organisms that feed on the producers. Examples of these are the monkeys, macaws, tapir, butterflies, sloths and toucans. Your children will learn about the process of the food chain and what eats what! The Food Chain Pictures show an image, the name of the image and what part it plays in the food chain. You could use our Food Chain PowerPoint to introduce your children to the topic! The length of a food chain is a continuous variable that shows how energy moves from the lowest to the highest trophic (feeding) level. It is also an indicator of the structure of an ecosystem.