Food Chains and Food Webs

A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. Plants are called producers because they are able to use light energy from the Sun to produce food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water. Animals cannot make their own food so they must eat plants and/or other animals. They are called consumers.

There are three main groups of consumers. Animals that eat ONLY PLANTS are called herbivores. Animals that eat OTHER ANIMALS are called carnivores. Animals and people who eat BOTH animals and plants are called omnivores. Other types of consumers include insectivores which eat insects, piscivores, which eat mostly fish and detritivores which eat the remains of small plants, animals and, in many cases dung.

Sample Food Chains

Create three examples of three or four link food chains Algae Willow trees Aquatic insects Bear Moose Fox Rabbit Grass Aquatic plants Birds Grain Insects and insect grubs Trout Raccoon Mosquito Ducks Coyote Mouse

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.

Trophic levels are the feeding position in a food chain such as primary producers, herbivore, primary carnivore, etc. Green plants form the first trophic level, the producers. Herbivores form the second trophic level, while carnivores form the third and even the fourth trophic levels.

Finished? 1- Draw a food web using the organisms listed in your notes 2- For five of these organisms, use the computers or pocket technology to find one specific species (type) of that organism, where they live and what they eat. b. For each organism you research, record the url of the site(s) you visited. 3- Add three new organisms of your choice to the food web.