www.BioTopics.co.uk
Site author Richard Steane
The BioTopics website gives access to interactive resource material, developed to support the learning and teaching of Biology at a variety of levels.

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Food chains and webs

Food chains

Food chains are simple lists of organisms in an ecosystem, linked by arrows. Many illustrated examples are available from this website.

Grass arrow to rightrabbitarrow to right fox
simple food chain: grass -> rabbit -> fox
 In a food chain, what do the arrows represent?
>"is eaten by"
>flow of energy
>flow of  organic materials

Food webs


Food webs include several food chains, fanning outwards and upwards.

Their arrangement shows:
>alternative flows of energy and organic materials
>that organisms can operate at different trophic levels (e.g. sometimes primary, sometimes secondary or tertiary consumers)
>which organisms are competing with others for the same food

Web references

Cool Antarctica has some great images and information about visits to an area which most of us can only dream about. It also has a quite impressive Antarctica Schools Resources section.



This topic has connections with other units on this site:-
Ecosystems

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