Food Chains
This is an intermediate type of successional pattern between the hydrarch and xerarch types. In this type moisture is present in sufficient quantities.
The Food Chains
The transfer of food energy from the producers, through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten, is known as a food chain.
The green plants utilise the radiant energy of the sun, which is transformed to chemical form, by synthesizing the complex organic molecules. Green plants absorb a portion of this radiant energy.
This is the food energy stored in plants. Thus green plants occupy, in any food! Chain, the first trophic (nutritional) level and are called primary producers. When the primary Consumers (herbivores) feed on the plants; the “food energy” is transferred from the autotrophies to these primary consumers.
These herbivores constitute the second trophic level. The “food energy” from the small consumers is once again transferred to large consumers which are carnivores and feed upon the small consumers. Still other carnivores at tertiary consumers’ level in turn may eat these. This type of transfer of “food energy” through a chain of organisms – autotrophs to primary consumers (herbivores), primary consumers to secondary consumers (carnivores), secondary consumers to tertiary consumers (large carnivores) etc. is called the “food chain.” The successive levels of energy flow constituting the links of the food chain are called atrophic levels.
