Question

Autotrophic plants are at the ______ level of the food chain.
A. Tertiary nutrition
B. Secondary nutrition
C. Producers
D. Highest

Answer 1

Hint: Only autotrophic plants can synthesize food, converting solar energy to chemical energy.

Complete answer:
Autotrophic plants are at the primary trophic level or T1 level of the food chain.
Plants can convert solar energy received from sunlight into chemical energy of food and that is why every food chain starts with the autotrophic plant, they are also known as producers.

Additional Information:
- The food chain is a system of individuals or groups of organisms who depend on organisms of the previous trophic level for their food and energy requirements.
- The T1 level of a food chain consists of producers, T2 consists of primary consumers, T3 has secondary consumers, T3 has tertiary consumers, T4 has Tertiary consumers, T5 has Quaternary or top consumers and T6 are decomposers.
- Energy through a food chain flows in a unidirectional way. 2-10% of photosynthetically active radiation or 1-5% of incident sunlight is trapped by autotrophic organisms.
- Energy flow in the ecosystem is explained by the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
- Food chains are of three types, Parasitic food chain, Detritus food chain, and Grazing Food Chain.
- The parasitic food chain starts from a large organism ( large trees) and ends on a usually small parasite.
- Detritus Food Chain starts from dead and organic matter eaten by detritivores like earthworm and ends in a top carnivore.
- The grazing food chain starts with producers.
- In nature, individual food chains do not exist. Many food chains are linked together to form a food web.

So, the answer is producers.

Note: Parasites are the only category of organisms that can be present at any trophic level. They can be present in T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6. This is because parasites obtain nutrition from other host organisms and the host can be any organism starting from the producer. Also, it is to be remembered that there is no backflow of energy in a food chain.