Why are food webs better than food chains and how does energy flow in an ecosystem and role of detritus feeders in the food chain?
Through food web more waste convert for energy consumption by detritus feeder and web response for multiple energy transfer compared to food chain
Normally, food webs consist of a number of food chains meshed together. Each food chain is a descriptive diagram including a series of arrows, each pointing from one species to another, representing the flow of food energy from one feeding group of organisms to another. Food webs consist of many interconnected food chains and are more realistic representation of consumption relationships in ecosystems. Energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient with a typical efficiency around 10%. This inefficiency limits the length of food chains. Food chains imply that organisms eat only one type of food which is rarely true. Food webs provide accurate information about the complexity of feeding relationships in an ecosystem whereas food chains are just linear diagrams that display feeding relationships between a few organisms. Energy flows through an ecosystem in a one-way stream, from primary producers to various consumers. A food chain is a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. Food chains can vary in length.The energy flow takes place via the food chain and food web. During the process of energy flow in the ecosystem, plants being the producers absorb sunlight with the help of the chloroplasts and a part of it is transformed into chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis. The energy that is obtained by the producers from the sun does not revert to the Sun and the energy passed to the herbivores does not return to the producers. The energy always moves to the next trophic level in a unidirectional way. Therefore, the flow of energy through an ecosystem is always 'one way'. Energy flows through an ecosystem in a one-way stream, from primary producers to various consumers. A food chain is a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten. Food chains can vary in length. There is a flow of energy from one trophic level to the other in a food chain. Producers bring energy from the sun into the community. Primary consumers eat the producers, which makes them herbivores in most communities. Secondary consumers eat the primary consumers, which makes them carnivores. Detritivores play an important role as recyclers in the ecosystem's energy flow and biogeochemical cycles. Alongside decomposers, they reintroduce vital elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and potassium back into the soil, allowing plants to take in these elements and use them for growth. Detritivores and decomposers contribute to the breakdown of all of the dead and decaying material in any ecosystem. In this way they play an important role in the cycling of nutrients and are an essential part of most biogeochemical cycles, such as the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and the phosphorus cycle. In forest environments, the detritus, made up of leaf litter and other organic matter, serves as an energy source for decomposers, herbivores, and carnivores; as much as ten times as much energy may flow through the detritus food chain as opposed to the grazing chain or pathway. There are number of organisms which feed on others but do not get fed by any other organism . So all such organisms also die and are a part of detritus food chain. Every living organism, if not eaten by others, will be part of DFC. That is why more matter and more energy flows in DFC than in GFC. The food web provides a better model of an ecosystem because the food web is a model between many different consumers and producers in an ecosystem. While the food chain is a model for just one consumer and producer. energy moves up a food chain. Food webs consist of many interconnected food chains and are more realistic representation of consumption relationships in ecosystems. Energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient with a typical efficiency around 10%. This inefficiency limits the length of food chains.
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