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BIOL - Feeding Relationship 🌱

Food Web, Food Chains , Pyramid Of Number, Pyramid Of Biomass  , Biology  - IBDP | GCE | AL | HKDSE | AP Biology

April 20, 2020

We will be exploring different feeding relationships that are out there, each of them has their own unique features. So lets explore them together, we know you can do it. 

Food Chains

The above picture shows a sequence of feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. That's what actually is a Food chain. It shows transfer of energy and organic matter from plants(grass) through a series of organisms with feeding relationship. As from the picture we can see how grass is eaten by grasshopper and that is eaten by shrew and finally owl. The arrows are indicating energy flow. It's pretty straightforward and simple.  👍

Feeding relationship is basically eating other organisms or being eaten by other organisms 

Food Webs 

Above picture is a very simple Food Web. It might seem a bit confusing but trust me it's very simple. As from the picture we can see that the grass is not only eaten by grasshopper but also by other organisms like mouse and rabbit. This shows that each organism can be eaten by more than one type of organism or can be feed on more than one type of organism. Thats what a food web shows. It reflects a more complex feeding relationship and this complex feeding relationship linking up many food chains together forms a Food Web. 😏

Ecological Pyramids 

Well you must be thinking whats Ecological Pyramid. It's something very simple , as in one of our article we have discussed about how energy is lost from one trophic level to another, the amount of energy available at higher trophic levels decreases progressively up the food chain. This relationship is reflected by Ecological Pyramids. There are two types of ecological pyramids: Pyramid Of Numbers and Pyramid Of Biomass. Lets discuss them further 😎

Pyramid Of Numbers 💯

In pyramid of numbers, the width of a block in the diagram is directly proportional to the number of organisms at that trophic level. 

Since there is energy loss between each Trophic level, less energy is available to the organisms at higher trophic level. Hence the number of organisms that can be supported decreases , for example, the amount of eagle is way less than the amount of hare available.

Moreover, the body size of predator (eagle) is way bigger than prey (hare) so that the former needs more energy than the latter. This decreases the number of organisms that can be supported at higher trophic level. ✔

We are almost done with Pyramid of Numbers. However, there is Partly Upright and Inverted Pyramid of Number, We will explain it further.😏

Partly Upright Pyramid Of Numbers

As we know Tree is quite a large organism , it can support large number of Aphid in turn will support ladybirds. Their feeding relationship produces a partly upright Pyramid of Numbers.🙈

Inverted Pyramid Of Numbers

As the tree is big enough to support a large number of herbivores and the herbivores are large enough to support parasites. These feeding relationships are represented by an Inverted Pyramid Of Numbers.🆗

Pyramid Of Biomass

The amount of energy stored in an organism depends on the total amount of biomass(living material) in the body. Biomass is the dry mass (mass without water) of an organism. A diagram with blocks that represents total biomass of all the trophic levels in a food chain is called Pyramid Of Biomass. As mentioned before there's energy loss in each trophic level, there will be decrease in the biomass in the pyramid of biomass. Organisms at lower level has higher biomass level and the organisms at high trophic level has lower biomass.🆒

Yayyyyy! We are finally done!! All of you did Great.

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