Trophic relationships

Trophic level

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. 

A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain.

Food chain

Trophic relationships

The trophic relationship is the relationships between the organisms that eat and the organisms that are eaten.

Trophic levels

For example, an owl eats insects like a praying mantis or a grasshopper and of course many other animals, they are carnivores. 

Owl eating a grasshopper

Owls are tertiary consumers while praying mantis or grasshoppers are secondary consumers, they are carnivores and they feed on herbivores like caterpillars.

A praying mantis eating a caterpillar

Caterpillars are primary consumers. They feed on plants. Plants are producers, they make their own food making photosynthesis. So, we can say that the primary consumer eats the producer, like the caterpillar eats the leaves of a plant. 

Caterpillars eat the leaves of a plant.
Caterpillars are primary consumers and the plant is a producer.

Fungi, bacteria and some insects are decomposers. They break down the remains of dead organisms.

A food chain shows the trophic relationships between different organisms.

A food chan shows the trophic relationships between diferent organisms. Normally you will see pictures of animals with arrows pointing. 

Food chain sometimes called food web

After reading this. You can make the food chain of the following living things: owl, grasshopper, caterpillar, plant and bacteria.