Grazing Food Chain

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Implications of Grazing Food Chain
• Types of Grazing Food Chain
• Examples of Grazing Food Chain

The grazing food chain is a type of food chain in which energy at the lowest trophic level is acquired via photosynthesis. The grazing food chain begins with producers like green plants, who create their own food through the process of photosynthesis and later move from herbivores to carnivores. In the grazing food chain, energy is acquired from the sun.

• This type of food chain is directly dependent on the flow of solar energy. Therefore, the gross production of plants might meet the following consequences; they may be oxidized during respiration, they can be eaten by herbivores or they may die and decay.
• Sunlight energy serves as the primary source of energy in the grazing food chain.
• The grazing food chain always adds energy to the ecosystem.
• Fixation of inorganic nutrients.
• It involves every macroscopic organism.

There are mainly two types of grazing food chains and they are as follows:

• Predator chain – Here, one animal consumes another animal. The animal that is being eaten is known as the prey and the animal that is eating the prey is known as the predator.
• Parasitic chain – Here, the plants and animals in a grazing food chain are infected by parasites.

1. This kind of food chain depends on energy captured by autotrophic plants and the flow of this captured energy to herbivores. The phytoplanktons are eaten by the zooplanktons, the zooplanktons are then eaten by fishes and then smaller fishes are eaten by larger fishes. Grasses are eaten by rabbits, and the rabbit is eaten by a fox.
2. The small plants or grass are eaten by a deer, and the deer is later eaten by a lion.

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