EXAMPLES OF FOOD CHAINS

There are millions of food chains in nature. Let’s take a look at three.

1. Grass à impala à lion

This is a simple food chain. The grass is the producer, the impala is the primary consumer (and a herbivore) and the lion is the secondary consumer (and a carnivore). When the lion dies, its remains are broken down and the grass in turn uses the nutrients from these broken-down remains to grow again. All three links are dependent on one another. A lion doesn’t eat grass but it’s bad for predators if there’s a drought and there's not enough grass because then the herbivores don’t have enough to eat and their numbers dwindle. And that means less food for the lion. There are more complicated food chains with more steps, such as:

2. Grass à locust à frog à snake à eagle

Here the grass is still the producer but there are four consumers: locust eats grass, frog eats locust, snake eats frog, eagle eats snake. All these creatures die and the grass uses the nutrients from their bodies to grow again. Food chains don’t exist only on land but everywhere in nature, including underwater. Here’s an example of a six-step chain:

3. Phytoplankton (tiny plants) à zooplankton (tiny animals) à small fish à larger, predatory fish à seal à shark

There are also scavengers underwater, such as starfish and crabs, as well as decomposers, such as bacteria, which complete the food chain.