Food Webs and Trophic Pyramids


Below is a picture that illustrates the different trophic levels in an ocean ecosystem. As you can see, sharks are at the very top of the trophic pyramid. This means that the sharks are not eaten by anything else in their ecosystem. The way this trophic pyramid works is that it starts at the bottom and then works its way up. The producers is eaten by the Herbivorous Consumer, which is eaten by the 1st level Carnivorous Consumer, which is eaten by the 2nd level Carnivorous Consumer and so on and so forth. 


As an organism is eaten by another, only 10% of the original energy is transferred to the animal that is eating it. The rest of the energy is lost as heat energy. Because of this "10% rule", the animals that are higher up in the trophic pyramid have less and less biomass (organic matter used as fuel). That means that if we ate primary producers (plants) we would be getting a lot more energy as compared to eating organisms higher up in the pyramid. 

 Shark Fin Soup has no nutritional value because it is from a top level carnivore. Because the animal has almost no biomass, we get no energy from eating it. Eating Shark Fin Soup does not benefit anyone in any way, shape, or form. 


Another way of looking at the way organisms interact within an ecosystem is a food web. A food web is much like a food chain, but more complicated. A food chain shows one possible route that energy can pass through an ecosystem. A food web, however, shows many different possibilities. An example is shown below. 



As you can see, there are many different routes that energy can travel throughout the different organisms. A food web gives you a much bigger view of the ecosystem as a whole as opposed to the food chain which just gives you a basic understanding.

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