20 Examples of Food Chains

The food chains or Trophic chains are the energy transmission cycle and matter that involves the different species of a biological community, in which each one feeds on the previous ones and serves as sustenance for the next ones. For example: phytoplankton serve as food for crustaceans, bees subsist on floral nectar.

Each link in this food chain is called the trophic level and determines the relationship of each species with those that are higher or lower in the cycle: predators and prey respectively.

However, this cycle feeds back when large predators die and provide food scavengers and decomposing microorganisms that transform their remains and, ultimately, make them compost for plant life.

Steps in the food chain

Broadly speaking, every food chain is made up of the following steps:

Fragility of food chains

The usual problems of food chains take place when some intermediate link disappears, which leads to the disorderly proliferation of inferior species and, consequently, unfair competition that leads to the extinction of other species, as the biological balance is lost and the

entropy of the system is increased.

The same happens when a lower rung is extinguished and the immediately higher species resent the decrease in its share of nutrients, having to look for it elsewhere or also succumbing to the decrease population.

Many green initiatives They try to make visible the impact of human activities and mass extinctions in food chains, to show that they are never isolated events and that, eventually, everything has consequences in the order of the nature.

Examples of food chains

1. The phytoplankton (vegetable) that inhabits the oceans serves as food for crustaceans malacostraceans (krill), in turn eaten by small fish. These, once again, are preyed upon by slightly older fish, such as the sardine, a frequent food for larger predators such as the barracuda. However, upon death, these large and aggressive fish are decomposed by scavengers and the cycle restarts.
2. The rabbits from the prairies they eat plants and grasses, are preyed upon by pumas, foxes and other mammals carnivores medium size. And when they die, they provide food for scavengers such as vultures.
3. The fleshy leaf plants They are parasitized by the caterpillars of butterflies, food in turn for various small birds, which The snakes and wildcats hunt, whose bodies, again, will be decomposed by bacteria and mushrooms.
4. A lots of flying insects Like the lobster, they eat the leaves of plants, but insectivorous toads eat them and are preyed upon by rodents such as the mongoose. And these are eaten by snakes.
5. The marine zooplankton and krill serve as food for the whales, who catch them by the ton with their long bales to filter the water. These are predated by man, and much of their organic matter returns to the sea What scrap and it is food for zooplankton.
6. The meat of the dead animals serves as an incubator and immediate food for the fly larvae, which in a short time will become imagos. Then they will be preyed upon by spiders, also victims of other larger spiders, which serve as feed different spider birds, finally preyed upon by hunting snakes such as the bells.
7. The grass nourishes goats, favorite victims of jaguars and other similar felines, which, when they die, provide food for bacteria and fungi, which nourish the initial pasture again.
8. The bark of many trees provides food for parasitic fungi, food in turn for small rodents, which are hunted by birds of prey like the owl or owl.
9. The waves that hit the stones push the marine phytoplankton to the colonies of bivalves such as mussels, which devour them. These, in turn, are preyed upon by crabs and the latter by seagulls that hunt them with pecks.
10. The famous dung beetles They feed on the remains of the faeces of higher animals. At the same time they are preyed upon by insectivorous lizards and lizards, who are the food of mammals quadrupeds like coyotes. These are killed by the man with bullets.
11. The bees They subsist on floral nectar, but are preyed upon by small birds, whose eggs feed nocturnal rodents such as the opossum. This, however, is hunted by snakes and birds of prey.
12. Back at sea, the little ones mollusks Like the squid are preyed mainly by medium-sized fish, which in turn provide food for seals and sea ​​mammals, finally hunted by the voracious orca whales.
13. In the microscopic world, decomposing organic matter supports the bacteria, which give the same to protozoa (such as free-living amoebae) and these to certain nematodes (worms), which in turn provide sustenance for larger nematodes.
14. The butterflies They eat floral or fruit nectar, but are food for predatory insects such as the ferocious praying mantis. This is also eaten by insectivorous bats, which, upon death, will return nutrients to the soil to feed the flowering or fruit plants.
15. The large herbivores like the zebra they feed on wild grasses and shrubs, but are preyed upon by crocodiles when they are about to drink water. No one preys on these, but time takes care of turning them into organic matter to nourish wild herbs and weeds.
16. The Earthworms They feed on the decomposing organic matter they get from the earth itself. They are food for small birds, which peck them out, and which are themselves victims of hunting felines, such as the wild cat. These, when they die, return to the earth the organic matter that will feed new worms.
17. The corn harvested by man, it serves as food for free-range chickens, whose eggs are stolen and eaten by weasels. These are hunted by snakes, and these are killed by the hand of man.
18. Many water spiders They hunt larvae or pupae of other insects, but they serve as prey for the fish that stalk them underwater. These are preyed upon by the Kingfisher bird, which in turn is fed by birds of prey such as the hawk.
19. The woodworms They feed on the bark of dead trees and are eaten by long-beaked birds. They lay new ones that some snakes eat, and these in turn eggs that other rodents can eat. Finally, the cycle will end a larger predator, such as the eagle.
20. The ticks they inhabit the fur of mammals (they feed on blood) and are food for symbiotic birds that clean the fur of these large mammals, such as buffalo. It feeds on herbs, but is preyed upon by large cats such as the tiger.

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