What is a Food Chain?

Answer 1

A food chain is the flow of energy from one organism to the next. Organisms in a food chain are grouped into trophic levels — from the Greek word for nourishment, trophikos — based on how many links they are removed from the primary producers. Trophic levels may consist of either a single species or a group of species that are presumed to share both predators and prey. They usually start with a primary producer and end with a carnivore. The diagram at right is a food chain from a Swedish lake. It can be described as follows: osprey feed on northern pike, that feed on perch, that eat bleak, that feed on freshwater shrimp. Although they are not shown in this diagram, the base of this food chain is likely phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are autotrophs, and are the base of the food chain by virtue of their ability to photosynthesize. Phytoplankton, as well as attached algae form the base of most freshwater food chains. It is often the case that biomass of each trophic level decreases from the base of the chain to the top. This is because energy is lost to the environment with each transfer. On average, only 10% of the organism's energy is passed on to its predator. The other 90% is used for the organisms life processes or is lost as heat to the environment. Graphic representations of the biomass or productivity at each trophic level are called trophic pyramids. In this food chain, for example, the biomass of osprey is smaller than the biomass of pike, which is smaller than the biomass of perch. Some producers, especially phytoplankton, are so productive and have such a high turnover rate that they can actually support a larger biomass of grazers. This is called an inverted pyramid, and can occur when consumers live longer and grow more slowly than the organisms they consume. In this food chain, the productivity of phytoplankton is much greater than that of the zooplankton consuming them. The biomass of the phytoplankton, however, may actually be less than that of the copepods. Directly linked to this are pyramids of numbers, which show that as the chain is travelled along, the number of consumers at each level drops very significantly, so that a single top consumer (e.g. a Polar Bear) will be supported by literally millions of separate producers (e.g. Phytoplankton). Food chains are overly simplistic as representatives of what typically happens in nature. The food chain shows only one pathway of energy and material transfer. Most consumers feed on multiple species and are, in turn, fed upon by multiple other species. The relations of detritivores and parasites are seldom adequately characterized in such chains as well.

Answer 2

A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. Most animals are part of more than one food chain and eat more than one kind of food in order to meet their food and energy requirements. These interconnected food chains form a food web. Basically it is animal eating animal in a food web.

Answer 3

Food chains describe the feeding relationships between species in an ecological community

here's a simple picture
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0113170/forest/images/fodchain.jpg

Answer 4

Food chain is 1 CEO owning more then 10 stores. Mainly its like Mc D's, Taco Bell, well known restaurant's!!!

Answer 5

A food chain is where some bored kid super-glues his McDonald's French Fries together end-to-end and then wears it proudly around his neck.

Answer 6

Imagine loads of onion rings linked together, or calamari. Or any other continuous link of foodstuffs. A food chain

Answer 7

I don't know and stop calling me Chain

Answer 8

McDonald's, mmmmmmm! I go there about 3 times a year. I suppose food change means a string of restaurants every where.

Answer 9

A chain of animals and their foods that intertwine with eachother.

Ex:
krill--> shrimp--> fish--> shark--> human

Answer 10

McDonalds KFC Pizza Hut Burger King etc etc