Serengeti
Food Chains
A Reminder!
A food chain is a series of organisms, each dependent on the next as a source of food.
Wait, you want it in english?
It'd be better to use an example.
A plant is eaten by a grasshopper.
The grasshopper is eaten by a rat.
The rat is eaten by a snake.
The snake is eaten by an owl.
You now know what a food chain is!
Examples of them
To the right is an example of a fod web in the African Serengeti. Let me label them for you. The plants are producers, or autotrophs. That means they produce the energy. The termite eats the producer, making it a first order consumer. The Aarvark eats the termite, making it a second order consumer. Finally, the Striper Hyena eats the Aardvark but is not eaten by anything else. This makes it a highest order consumer.
Image Source: www.gayanskenvironment.blogspot.com
Glossary
Food chain
Producer
First Order Consumer
Second Order Consumer
Highest Order Consumer
A series of organisms, each dependent on the next as a source of food.
An autotrophic organisim that serves as a source of food for consumers in the food chain and does not consunme anything.
A consumer that eats a producer in the food chain. e.g A herbivore
A consumer that eats the first order consumer in the food chain.
e.g Carnivore
A consumer in the food chain that eats organisms below it in the chain, but is not eaten.
Autotroph
An organism that is able to make food for itself from non-living substances, like Carbon Dioxide or sunlight.
Heterotroph
Any organism that has to consume another organism to get their food.