Food chains & food webs (article) | Ecology | Biology 24/7

Food chain may be a linear sequence of organisms that starts from producer organisms and ends with decomposer species. Food web may be a association of multiple food chains. Food chain follows one path whereas food cycle follows multiple ways. From the organic phenomenon, we get to know how organisms are connected with each other. Food chain Associate in Nursingd food cycle kind an integral a part of this system. Let us take a look at the difference between food chain and food web.

Food Chain

In scientific terms, a food chain is a chronological order or an pathway that shows the flow of energy from one organism to the other. In a community which has producers, consumers, and decomposers, the energy flows in a specific pathway. Energy is not created or destroyed. But it flows from one level to the other, through different organisms.
A food chain shows a single order or pathway from the producers to the consumers and how the energy flows in this order or pathway. In the animal kingdom, food travels around different levels. To understand a organic phenomenon higher, allow us to take a glance at the terrestrial system.



The sun is that the supply of energy, that is that the initial energy supply. This is utilized by the producers or plants to form their own food, through chemical action and grow. Next in this chain is another organism, which is the consumer that eats this food, taking up that energy.

The primary shoppers area unit the organisms that consume the first producers. In a terrestrial ecosystem, it could be a herbivore like a cow or a goat or it could even be a man. When a goat is consumed by man, he becomes the secondary consumer.

As the energy goes 1 level up, the food chain also moves up. Each level within the organic phenomenon is named a organic process level. The different trophic levels are Primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and quaternary consumers.


Example of food chain

Grass(Producer) 
Goat(Primary Consumer) 
Man(Secondary consumer)
When dead organic matter becomes the beginning of a organic phenomenon, then it is called the detritus food chain (DFC). The decomposers, which are the bacteria and fungi, feed on the organic matter to meet the energy requirements. The digestive enzymes secreted by the decomposers help in the breakdown of the organic matter into inorganic materials.


Food Web


Many interconnected food chains make up a food web. When you look at the larger picture, a food web shows a realistic representation of the energy flow through different organisms in an ecosystem.

Sometimes, one organism gets eaten up by several predators or it chow several different organisms. This is when a food chain does not  represent the energy flow in a proper manner because there are many trophic levels that interconnect. This is wherever a organic phenomenon comes into place. It shows the interactions between different organisms in an ecosystem.

This diagram shows the energy flow between various organisms through a food web.


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