Food Chains:
Food chains are the links that show how energy is transferred from one organism to another organism in an ecosystem. Food chains begin with producers. Producers are organisms that can make their own food by converting the sunlight into energy. Producers are mainly plants. Plants are then consumed by another organism. These are called consumers. Consumers are organisms that can't make their own food so they have to consume another organism to get the energy that they need. There are three types of consumers in a food chain. There are primary consumers which eat the producers, there are secondary consumers which eat the primary consumers, and there are sometimes tertiary consumers which eat the secondary consumers. Food chains are usually kept short, since if they were long then the organisms at the end of the food chain wouldn't get enough energy that it needs. Every time energy is moved down in a food chain some of it is used up by the organism that had it before. Thus, there is less energy at the end of a food chain than from the start. An example of a food chain in the coral reef is a seaweed being eaten by surgeon fish and that is eaten by a nurse shark. Food Webs: Food webs are very similar to food chains. However, they are slightly different. Instead of having one link, a food web has several other links connecting together like a web. So you could say that a food web is a combination of food chains combining together. They often look confusing. An example of a food web is the following above. Decomposers and Scavengers: Decomposers and scavengers also play an important role in food chains and food webs. Scavengers are organisms that eat the corpses of another organism that was left to rot. This is important because it somewhat helps the decomposers decompose the dead body faster but there will be less nutrients. The decomposers decompose the dead body of an organism into nutrients and those nutrients go into the soil for the plants. In the coral reef an example of a decomposer is a sea cucumber. Scavengers in the coral reef could be reef sharks. Herbivores- Herbivores are organisms that eat only plants. In the food chain herbivores are the primary consumers. An example of an herbivore in the coral reef is a rudder fish. Carnivores- Carnivores are organisms that eat only meat. These type of organisms in the food chain are secondary consumers or they could also be tertiary consumers. This means that they consume the other organisms to get their energy. An example of a carnivore in the coral reef is a reef shark. Omnivores- Omnivores are organisms that eat both plants and meat. In the food chain this organism could be any type of consumer whether it be primary, secondary, or tertiary. In the coral reef, an example of an omnivore is a reef triggerfish. |