Question

Mr. X is eating curd or yogurt. What trophic level he should be considered as occupying For this food intake in a food chain,
(a)First trophic level
(b)Second trophic level
(c)Third trophic level
(d)Fourth trophic level

Answer 1

Hint: The first trophic level is considered to be the producers or the green plants that are consumed by herbivores (second trophic level) and from them, curd/yogurt (made from daily breed) is consumed by third trophic level organisms like a man.

Complete answer:
The food chain, in ecology, the sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism. As most organisms consume more than one type of animal or plant, food chains intertwine locally into a food web. The trophic level in ecology can be defined as the position that an organism occupies in a food chain and a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves is called a food chain. The number of steps an organism is from the start of the chain is the trophic level of that organism.
Although there are exceptions in deep-sea ecosystems, the primary energy source in any ecosystem is the sun and the solar radiation from it provides the input of energy which is used by primary producers, also known as autotrophs. Usually, plants and algae are the primary producers that perform photosynthesis to manufacture their food source. The first trophic level is made by Primary producers and the rest of the trophic levels are made up of consumers, also known as heterotrophs which cannot produce their food, so must consume other organisms to acquire nutrition. The herbivores are called primary consumers and included in the second trophic level where organisms gain energy by eating primary producers. Carnivores and omnivores belong to the trophic levels three, four, and five where carnivores are animals that survive only by eating other animals, whereas omnivores eat animals and plant material. Carnivores and omnivores which eat herbivores are added in the trophic level three and called the secondary consumers. Tertiary consumers consist of carnivores and omnivores in the trophic level four which eat secondary consumers. And lastly, the trophic level five consists of apex predators; these animals have no natural predators and are therefore at the top of the food chain. The dead plant and animal material consuming organisms or the decomposers or detritivores who convert it into energy and nutrients that plants can use for effective growth. Decomposers and detritivores like fungi, bacteria, earthworms, and flies, from all other trophic levels, help in recycling the waste material, and are an important part of a functioning ecosystem although they do not have an independent trophic level.
So, the correct answer is the ‘Third trophic level’.

Note: Raymond Lindeman developed the concept of a trophic level in 1942 based on the terminology of another scientist August Thienemann (1926): "producers", "consumers" and "reducers" (modified to "decomposers" by Lindeman). In ecology the flow of energy through a food chain is referred to as the energy flow and is the focus of study in ecological energetics.