Interdependency of Species in the Food Web
The concept of the food web is useful when one wants to understand the interdependency of species that live in a particular biome, and, further, how events in one biome can cause ripple effects that impact life in other biomes. This demonstrates the interdependency of all life, not just life in a particular biome. In order to understand this, it is important to understand what one means by the concept of a food web. Previously, people envisioned a food chain, with species being characterized as food or the one doing the eating. This helped people understand the relationship between different organisms and how some organisms formed an intermediate link between other organisms.
However, the idea of a food chain is actually overly simplistic. At different stages in their life cycles and at different opportunities, various species serve as both predator and prey, an idea that the food chain concept ignores. However, while there may be differences in roles dependent upon life stages, organisms in the food web tend to fall into one of three basic tropic levels: producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers tend to be autotrophic and, therefore, do not directly rely on other organisms for nutrition, though they may take nourishment from the ground that is only there because of other organisms. Consumers and decomposers directly feed...
Tundra Energy Flow Chart Arctic Willow Bacteria Lemming Arctic Wolves Snowy Owl The base of the tundra ecosystem's energy flow is the Arctic willow, a small aquatic plant which grows because of a bacterial process in which nutrients from its body are returned to the surrounding soil. Because animals are unable to derive solar energy directly from sunlight in the tundra, they are forced to depend entirely on plants, which absorb solar energy and utilize it
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now