Food chains and Food Webs

Complete mix and match of

definitions
 Food Chain
Food chains show what eats what. Organisms
that feed at the same level in a food chain are in
the same trophic level.

Complete following sheet using the following

diagram to help
 Trophic Level 4

Trophic Level 3

Trophic Level 2

Trophic Level 1
 How else can a food chain be
diagrammatically represented?
Why do organisms eat?
 Energy Transfer
Inside an organism, energy stored in food is released
during respiration.

Some of this energy is transferred into biomass

(substances that form tissues) as the organism
grows.

The energy stored in biomass will be transferred to

the next organism in the food chain when it is eaten.
However, some of the energy that is released in
respiration is transferred into forms of energy that
are not useful.

The energy is transferred to the environment and

is therefore wasted and is not available to
organisms at the next trophic level.

Examples?
 How energy is lost
Some of the available energy goes into growth and the
production of offspring. This energy becomes available
to the next stage, but most of the available energy is
used up in other ways:
• Energy released by respiration is used for movement
and other life processes
• Waste materials, such as faeces
• Heat

All of the energy used in these ways returns to the

environment, and is not available to the next stage
So why are food chains limited?
 Why are food chains limited?
Energy is lost at each level

At the top trophic level of a food chain there is

not enough energy in the biomass to provide
enough energy for another level.

This means there is a limit to the length of a

food chain