In a food chain, energy is passed from one link to another. When a herbivore eats, only a fraction of the energy becomes new body mass. The rest of the energy is lost as waste or used up by the herbivore to carry out its daily life. Therefore, when the herbivore is eaten by a carnivore, it passes only a small amount of total energy to the carnivore. Of the energy transferred from the herbivore to the carnivore, some energy will be wasted by the carnivore. The carnivore then has to eat many herbivores to get enough energy to grow.
Video summery: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/27997-assignment-discovery-the-food-web-video.htm
Plants
Plants are called producers because they are able to use light energy from the Sun to produce food from carbon dioxide and water.
Animals
Animals cannot make their own food so they must eat plants and/or other animals. They are called consumers. There are three groups of consumers.
ConsumersPrimary Consumer-Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores
Secondary Consumers-Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores.
Tertiary- Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumers
Decomposers
Decomposers which feed on decaying matter.
These decomposers speed up the decaying process that releases mineral salts back into the food chain for absorption by plants as nutrients.
These decomposers speed up the decaying process that releases mineral salts back into the food chain for absorption by plants as nutrients.
