Question

Which of the following is not a hypothesis for why food-chain length is limited?
A. Food-chain length is limited by one organism's ability to consume another.
B. Food-chain length is limited because they are easily disrupted by environmental perturbations.
C. Food-chain length is limited by productivity.
D. Food-chain length is a function of an ecosystem's physical structure.

Answer 1

Hint: A food chain is a network of links in a food web that runs in a straight line from producer organisms to an apex predator, detritivor, or decomposer species. A food chain also demonstrates how organisms are connected to one another by the foods they consume. A food chain's levels correspond to several trophic levels.

Complete step by step solution:
In ecology, the food chain is the flow of substance and energy from one organism to another in the form of food. Due to the fact that most species consume more than one kind of animal or plant, food chains locally entangle to form a food web. The main source of food is plants since they use photosynthesis to turn solar energy into food. A flesh-eating animal consumes a plant-eating species in a predator chain. In a parasite chain, a smaller organism partially consumes a larger host and may even become a parasite on itself. Microorganisms in a saprophytic chain consume dead organic substances to survive.
Chains typically do not include more than four or five trophic levels because energy, in the form of heat, is lost at each step or trophic level.

The term "food chain" refers to a network of creatures whose feeding behaviours are intertwined, with the smallest being fed by the largest, which in turn feeds the next largest, etc. A producer, often a green plant or algae that produces its own food through photosynthesis, is the first link in the food chain. The ability of one creature to consume another does not determine the length of the food chain.

Therefore option A is the correct answer, Food-chain length is limited by one organism's ability to consume another.

Note:
For the majority of organisms to survive, food chains are crucial. In rare situations, the extinction of a species can happen when just one component of the food chain is eliminated. Primary producers form the foundation of the food chain. Primary producers, or autotrophs, can produce complex organic compounds using energy from either sunlight or inorganic chemical compounds, whereas organisms at higher trophic levels cannot and must instead consume producers or other life that also consumes producers.