Question

What is meant by food web? Explain with examples the formation of food webs in the ecosystem.

Answer 1

Hint: A food chain depicts a direct energy transfer between organisms. Although food chains and food webs are similar, they are not the same thing. The food web describes how food chains overlap, whereas a food chain depicts a distinct, connected path of energy transfer in an ecosystem. Food webs and food chains both have three categories of organisms: producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Complete answer:
A food web is made up of several interlinked food chains. A food web is comparable to a food chain, except that a food web is far broader than a food chain. A single organism is occasionally consumed by a large number of predators, or it consumes multiple other creatures. As a result, numerous trophic levels become interlinked, and the food chain fails to properly display the flow of energy. The food web becomes more complex when there are more cross interactions across different food chains. A more complex food chain leads to a more long-term ecology.
Snakes can eat mice (herbivores) and frogs (carnivores), while jackals can eat both carnivores and scavengers.

Additional information:
Energy is transferred between trophic levels. It all starts with the sun's energy, which autotrophs use to generate food. As the different creatures are consumed by members of the tiers above them, this energy is passed up the tiers. Approximately \[10\% \] of the energy transmitted from one trophic level to another is converted to biomass.

Note:
Trophic levels and positions exist in food webs. Plants are the initial trophic level (level \[1\]), followed by herbivores (level \[2\]), and finally carnivores (level \[3\]). The trophic level is one higher than the chain length, or the number of connections that connect to the base. The food chain's starting point (primary producers or detritivores) is set to \[0\]. Energy flow is depicted in food webs via trophic connections. The directed flow of energy contrasts with the cyclic flow of material across food web systems.