Food Chain: Levels, Examples and How It Works

I eat bamboo, the bamboo grows on sunlight and water, and when I am no longer around, fungi and bacteria will take care of the rest. That is a food chain: who eats whom, and how energy moves along.

Here you get the levels of a food chain, easy examples, which way the arrows point, the difference between a chain and a web and the 10% energy rule.

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What is a food chain?

A food chain is a sequence of living things in which each one is food for the next. It shows the path of energy: it starts with the Sun, passes through plants and continues through animals.

The levels of a food chain

1. Producers: make their own food, usually by photosynthesis. Plants and algae.
2. Primary consumers: eat the producers. These are herbivores, like grasshoppers and rabbits.
3. Secondary consumers: eat the herbivores. Carnivores like frogs.
4. Tertiary consumers: eat other carnivores. A snake and a hawk, for example.
5. Decomposers: fungi and bacteria that break down what died and return nutrients to the soil.

An example food chain

grass → grasshopper → frog → snake → hawk

• Grass is the producer.
• The grasshopper is the primary consumer.
• The frog is the secondary consumer.
• The snake is the tertiary consumer.
• The hawk is the top consumer.

Which way the arrows point

The arrow points from the one being eaten to the one eating, because it shows where the energy goes. In the example, the arrow goes from the grass to the grasshopper, not the other way around.

Herbivores, carnivores and omnivores

• Herbivores eat only plants: rabbit, cow, grasshopper.
• Carnivores eat other animals: lion, snake, hawk.
• Omnivores eat a bit of everything: people, bears, pigs.

Food chain and food web

In nature, almost no animal eats just one thing. A food web joins many chains that cross. A hawk, for example, can also eat lizards and mice, not just snakes.

The 10% rule

At each step of the chain, only about 10% of the energy passes to the next level. The rest is used by the animal itself or lost as heat. That is why chains have few levels and there are many more plants than top predators.

Test yourself in Zabum!

Zabum! is a game show quiz with seven categories, and Science is one of them. You can practice questions like this one, quickly.

PolarzinhoFive for five. I am at the top of the quiz food chain.

FAQ

What is a food chain?

A sequence of living things in which each one is food for the next.

Who are the producers?

Living things that make their own food, like plants and algae.

What do decomposers do?

They break down what died and return nutrients to the soil.

Which way do food chain arrows point?

From the one being eaten to the one eating.

Your turn

Build a chain with five living things: algae, small fish, big fish, shark and bacteria. Which is the producer, and which one plays the decomposer?

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