Monday, October 27, 2008

Class Reponse: The Food Chain

Recently, in class we have been working on what a food chain is. We have understood that the food chain shows how living things get their food and nutrient. The food chain always starts with a producer such as a tree, plant or shrub and then will get eaten by a primary consumer which could be a rabbit or a squirrel. Next the Primary consumer will be eaten by a secondary consumer. A secondary consumer could be a snake or an owl. Another interesting fact is that decomposers aren't always added to every food chain because they are always at the beginning and end of a food chain. Examples of decomposers are mushrooms and bacteria. A third interesting fact is that a herbivore only eats plants, a carnivore only eats meat and an omnivore eats both plants and meat. Also, there are more herbivores than carnivores. The reason is because each time energy is passed, less and less energy is passed. So a carnivore has to eat many herbivores to get enough energy. I think that the food chain is very complex and helpful especially for ecologist. I have learned a lot from this because I understand how energy is passed from one organism from another.
http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodchain.htm

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