Food Chains vs. Food Webs
By, Mara and Wesley
Food Chain- shows the feeding relationships between a single group in a habitat
Plants > Herbivorous Insects > Spiders > Predations Insects > Toads > Snakes
Food chains are a representation of a given feeding relationship in a community or an ecosystem. They help to demonstrate the isolated energy transfers that occur within a food web. A food chain follows a direct pathway, unlike a food web which represents a complex organization of predator/prey relationships.
Food Web- a demonstration of lots of interconnected food chains
A food web is an often graphic representation of the interconnected feeding relationships of a given community of ecosystem. Some would say that food chains are never ending because those belonging to different ecosystems are interconnect with one another. Food webs often begin with one or many producers which are consumed by first level consumers which are consumed by secondary consumers. Which are then consumed by tertiary consumers which eventually die and their remains are recycled into the earth by decomposers to be used again by plants. So in many ways food webs are also a cycle! Unlike food chains, food webs represent the complex interactions between many organisms in an ecosystem or community. For example, a food chain may only demonstrate an alligator lizard eating an earthworm. While a food web can demonstrate an alligator lizard eating an earthworm, a millipede, pilolbugs, insect larvae, and crickets.