Food chain

hide

Food chains, also called food webs, describe the eating relationships between species within an ecosystem or a particular living place. Many types of food chains or webs are applicable depending on habitat or environmental factors.

Organisms are connected to the organisms they consume by lines representing the direction of organism or energy transfer. It also shows how the energy from the producer is given to the consumer. Typically a food chain or food web refers to a graph where only connections are recorded, and a food network or ecosystem network refers to a network where the connections are given weights representing the quantity of nutrients or energy being transferred.

Sometimes, on a food chain, each animal is separated with an arrow. If it is pointing right, it means "is eaten by" or "is consumed by".

Every single food chain known to Man begins with a type of autotroph, whether it be a plant or some kind of unicellular organism.

For more information about Food chain, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with food chain

results timeline


Marine aquaculture could feed growing world population

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The oceans could become the source of more of humanity's food if steps are taken to expand and improve marine aquaculture, according to a study published in the December 2009 issue of BioScience.


Striped skunk

Skunk's Strategy Not Just Black and White

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 4

Predators with experience of skunks avoid them both because of their black-and-white coloration and their distinctive body shape, according to UC Davis wildlife researcher Jennifer Hunter. The study was published ...


Eutrophication affects diversity of algae

Eutrophication affects diversity of algae

Biology / Ecology

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Eutrophication of the seas may have an impact on genetic variation in algae, research at the University of Gothenburg shows.


Open Lid Reveals Mercury

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mercury, the silvery liquid formerly used in thermometers, is now known to be highly toxic. The worst of the toxins are organic mercury compounds, such as methylmercury. Most previous analytical procedures ...


Researchers reveal key to how bacteria clear mercury pollution

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Mercury pollution is a persistent problem in the environment. Human activity has lead to increasingly large accumulations of the toxic chemical, especially in waterways, where fish and shellfish tend to act as sponges for ...


Catastrophic Darkness: How Life Survives an Asteroid Impact

Catastrophic Darkness: How Life Survives an Asteroid Impact

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

A dinosaur-killing asteroid may have wiped out much of life on Earth 65 million years ago, but now scientists have discovered how smaller organisms might have survived in the darkness following such a catastrophic ...


Danish scientists find 'Lucky Luke' of the seas

Scientists find 'Lucky Luke' of the seas

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Could you filter 100,000 cubic metres of syrup every day to find food in a concentration of two grains of rice per cubic metre?


Fish

Algae-Based Biofuel From Fish

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 01, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (12) | comments 14

Right now, when biofuel is produced using algae, cultures are grown and then processed into fuel. But the process is expensive and difficult. Now a company in Texas, LiveFuels, Inc., hopes that it will be ...


Scientists find universal rules for food-web stability

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The findings, published in this week's issue of Science, conclude that food-web stability is enhanced when many diverse predator-prey links connect high and intermediate trophic levels. The computations also reveal that s ...


Iron isotopes as a tool in oceanography

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 31, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

New research involving scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) highlights the potential utility of iron isotopes for addressing important questions in ocean science. The findings are published ...


Massive dust storm in China circled the world in 13 days: study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 20, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

A wind storm that ripped across western China's Taklimakan desert kicked up hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dust that high-altitude winds then carried around the world in less than two weeks, a study says.


Measuring the effects of temperature increases in the Antarctic fauna

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey subjected species found in Antarctic waters to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how well they would cope with a warmer ocean. The study, to be presented at the ...


Critics: Burial site for Hudson PCBs is inadequate (AP)

Critics: Burial site for Hudson PCBs is inadequate

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 22, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

(AP) -- Later this month, the first trainloads of PCB-tainted sludge dredged from the Hudson River will arrive and, in the eyes of critics, will turn a stretch of West Texas into New York's "pay toilet."


Breakthrough made in assessing marine phytoplankton health

Breakthrough made in assessing marine phytoplankton health

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 28, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers from Oregon State University, NASA and other organizations said today that they have succeeded for the first time in measuring the physiology of marine phytoplankton through satellite measurements ...


Timing is Everything for Northern Shrimp Populations in the North Atlantic

Timing is Everything for Northern Shrimp Populations in the North Atlantic

Biology / Ecology

created May 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Even for Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis), which support commercial fisheries worldwide, timing is everything in life. The tiny creatures, eaten in shrimp rolls and shrimp salad, occupy ...