CHARACTERISTICS OF Food chain
❖ A food chain is always straight and proceeds in a progressive
straight line.
❖ Usually there are 3 or 4 trophic levels in the food chain. In a few
chains, there may be maximum up to 5 trophic levels.
❖ There is unidirectional flow of energy in a food chain from
producers to consumers.
❖ Population size decreases with the rise in trophic level except in
parasitic food chain. Top carnivores are always very few in
number.
❖ Some organisms are omnivores. They occupy different trophic
levels in different food chains.
❖ An organism can operate at more than one trophic levels, eg:
snakes feed on herbivorous rabbit as well as on carnivorous frog.
SIGNIFICANCE OF Food chain
❖ The food chain provides information about the living components
of the ecosystem.
❖ The food chain provides pathways for the passage of food and
energy in the ecosystem.
❖ It helps in understanding the interdependence and interactions
amongst various organisms in an ecosystem.
CHARACTERISTICS OF Food WEB
❖ Unlike food chain, food web is never straight. Instead, each food
web is a network formed by interlinking of food chains
❖ Food web provides alternative pathways of food availability. For
example, if population of a particular species say rabbit decreases,
its predators begin to eat mice or squirrels. Meanwhile, rabbits
increase in number and the balance of nature is restored.
❖ It provides stability to ecosystems.
❖ Food webs also help in checking the overpopulations of highly
fecund species of plants and animals.
❖ It allows endangered species to grow in size.
Ecological Pyramids
❖ Ecological Pyramid is a graphical representation of various ecological
parameters like biomass, energy or number of individuals present in
various trophic levels of a food chain.
❖ An ecological pyramid can be upright or inverted.
❖ Pyramids are of three types:
➢ Pyramid of number
➢ Pyramid of biomass
➢ Pyramid of energy
Pyramid of number
❖ It is the graphical representation of number of individuals per unit area at
each trophic level of a food chain in an ecosystem.
Pyramid of biomass
❖ It is the graphical representation of the biomass present sequence wise per
unit area of different trophic levels of a food chain in an ecosystem.
Pyramid of energy
❖ It is the graphical representation of the amount of energy trapped per unit
time at different trophic levels of a food chain in an ecosystem.
❖ It is always uright.
FLOW OF ENERGY IN AN ECOSYSTEM
❖ Energy flow is a sequential process of movement of energy in an
ecosystem through a series of organisms and back to the external
environment.
❖ Flow of energy in an ecosystem is always unidirectional. From producers
to herbivores to carnivores.
Ten percent law
❖ The law was proposed by Lindemann in 1942.
❖ The transfer of energy from one trophic level to another is accompanied by
loss of energy at each trophic level or step.
❖ Only 1% of the solar radiation is trapped by producers during their
photosynthetic activity and gets converted into food energy. The rest is
dissipated as heat.
❖ When the green plants are eaten by herbivores, most of the energy is lost as
heat to the environment, some amount goes into digestion, some in doing
work and the rest goes towards the growth and reproduction. On an
average, 10% of the food energy is only turned into the body of the
herbivores and this 10% of the total energy is made available to the next
level of consumers.
❖ When a carnivore consumes the herbivore, again about 10% of the energy
is fixed.
❖ Therefore, at each transfer about 90% of the food or biomass energy is lost
during respiration, digestion, etc and 10% of the total energy is available to
the next trophic level.
❖ Therefore, 10% can be taken as the average value for the amount of
organic matter that is present at each step and reaches the next level of the
consumers.
Ten percent law
Ten percent law
Ten percent law
Ten percent law
Biomagnification
❖ The accumulation and progressive increase
in the concentration of non biodegradable,
harmful chemicals at different trophic levels
in a food chain is called bioconcentration or
biomagnification.
❖ Pesticides and other chemical substances are
sprayed over crop plants to protect them
from pests and diseases. These chemicals get
mixed with soil and water. From the soil,
these are absorbed by the plants along with
water and minerals, and from the water
bodies these are taken up by aquatic plants
and animals.
❖ In this way, they enter the food chain. Since
these chemicals are not degradable, they get
accumulated progressively at each trophic
level. As human being occupy the top level
in any food chain, the maximum
concentration of these chemicals get
accumulated in the human body.
Biomagnification
