Question

What are the trophic levels? Give an example of the food chain and state the different trophic levels in it.

Answer 1

Hint: The trophic level is the step or level included in a food chain. It denotes the number of steps the organism is from the start of the chain. An organism may not always occupy the same trophic level it can differ accordingly based on the food chain. There are 4 trophic levels it includes producers, herbivores (primary consumers), carnivores (secondary consumers), predators (tertiary consumers). The Food web is referred to as a network of feeding interactions that usually consists of multiple food chains.

Complete answer:
>Trophic level is a step in a nutritive series, or food chain, of an ecosystem. The organisms in the food chain are classified into these levels based on their feeding behavior.

> Producers include plants.
- The first trophic level includes herbivores like a cow, goat, etc.
- The second trophic level includes carnivores like a tiger, lion, etc.
- The tertiary trophic level includes omnivores like humans, bears, etc.
- The trophic level of an organism is the position that it occupies in a food web.

> A food chain is a succession of organisms or a stepwise process where organisms eat others and can, in turn, be eaten themselves.
> The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain.
> A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, then to herbivores(primary consumers) at level 2, carnivores(secondary consumers) at level 3 or higher, and apex predators at level 4 or 5.
> Producers are autotrophs which include plants or algae.
> Plants and algae do not usually eat other organisms, but pull nutrients and manufacture their food using photosynthesis.
> They are called primary producers. The energy from the sun powers the base of the food chain.
>Consumers are species that cannot manufacture their food and need to consume other organisms. Animals that consume primary producers like plants are called herbivores

Example:
Grass grasshopper frog snake eagle
The grass is the producer in the trophic level. Grasshopper is the consumer or also called herbivores. The frog is the 1st level carnivore. Snake is the 2nd level carnivore. Eagle is the 3rd level carnivore.
Grass $\to$ grasshopper $\to$ frog $\to$ snake eagle

Note: Depending on the food web an organism may not always occupy the same trophic level. The arrows in a food web indicate that the food chain travels from the prey to the predator instead of the other way around. The arrows in a food web or food chain always point in the direction the energy is flowing. There is more than one food chain for most organisms, most organisms eat more than one kind of food or they are eaten by more than one type of predator.