Question

Write the characteristics of the food chain.

Answer 1

Characteristics of the food chain:

• In the food chain, there is repeated eating in which each group eats the smaller one and is eaten by the larger one. Thus, it involves a nutritive interaction between the biotic components of an ecosystem.
• The plants and animals which depend successively on one another form the limbs of a food chain.
• There is the unidirectional flow of energy from the sun to producers and then to a series of consumers of various types. Thus, a food chain is always straight and proceeds in a progressing straight line.
• Usually, 80 to 90% of potential energy is lost as heat at each transfer on the basis of the second law of thermodynamics.
• Usually, there are 4 or 5 trophic levels. Shorter food chains provide greater available energy and vice-versa.
• Omnivores occupy more than one trophic level and, some organisms occupy different trophic positions in different food chains.

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