LogoLog inSubscribe

Food network #2

Learning objectives

  • Describe the food relationships between living beings (discuss chains and food networks).
  • Define the terms producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, scavenger, prey, predator.
  • Understand that an ecosystem is in a fragile equilibrium and that it is necessary to protect certain plant and animal species.

An ecosystem groups together living beings (plant and animal) and the environment in which they live and interact.

A food network (or trophic network) is the joining of many food chains in the same ecosystem. In this network, a living being consumes another to insure its survival.

For this reason, we can characterize a trophic level by the transfer of energy (material) of a living being to another according to a particular hierarchy. We can also distinguish:

  • The producers (plants) capable of producing their own energy (material) principally by photosynthetic processes.
  • The consumers (animals) eat other elements in order to get energy. Herbivores, carnivores and top carnivores are all part of the consumer category.
  • The decomposers, not represented in this animation, complete the life cycle by degrading the organic materials of each category below (bacteria, fungus, insects).

Click on a living being in the ecosystem to make it disappear.

Click "Next step" more than once to simulate the long term consequences on the ecosystem.

Discover EduMedia for free

The interactive encyclopedia that brings science and math to life in the classroom.

sourceOver 1,000 resources

School level

Sign up for our newsletter