Food web explained with examples

Food Web

Food chain can be interlinked in a habitat, giving rise to food web. An understanding on the concept of food chain is vital towards comprehending a food web. This is true because a food web is simply a complicated food chain.

Recall that a food chain is a diagram that shows the feeding relationship between organisms (plants and animals) in a given habitat.

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In order to properly explain what a food web really is, a diagram that shows its illustration is required. Below is a diagram that shows a food web.

Using the above diagram as a point of reference, notice that the feeding pattern is interlinked. In fact, it is this interlinking of food chain that gives rise to a food web.

Consider the explanations below. The diagram serves as our reference.

EXPLANATION 1:

• Grasshopper feeds on berries.
• The frog feeds on the grasshopper.
• A snake feeds on the frog.
• A titmouse feeds on the snake.
• The fox eats the titmouse.

The aformentioned observations are illustrated below:

Berries >> Grasshopper >> Frog >> Snake >> Titmouse >> Fox

This illustration (above) is just one of the various food chains shown in the diagram. In this case, it is commenced by the berries, (called producers in a food chain). You will also observe from the diagram that another food chain in the same habitat is commenced by the plantain (also a producer).

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Meanwhile, always remember that the producers will always commence a food chain while the decomposers ends it.

Notice that the food chain which commenced by the berries were directly consumed by the grasshopper, greenfly, butterfly and titmouse. These set of consumers are generally referred to as primary consumers as illustrated in explanation 2 below.

EXPLANATION 2:

Recall that the food chain in explanation 1 began with the berries which were consumed by the grasshopper, a primary consumer.

Notice that apart from the grasshopper feeding on berries, the greenfly, titmouse and butterfly also fed on the berries, thus initiating their respective food chain at the level of a primary consumer.

Once again, it is important to state that the interlinking of food chains will give rise to a food web. In this instance, the interlinking of the separate food chains initiated by the berries and plantains (at the level of the producers) gave rise to the food web as illustrated in the diagram. In addition, a separate food chain was also started at the level of the primary consumer by the butterfly, greenfly, grasshopper and titmouse since they all fed on the berries.

The instance below shows the food chain initiated by the greenfly at the level of a primary consumer:

• Just like the grasshopper, the greenfly also feeds on the berries
• The ladybird feeds on the greenfly.
• Dragonfly feeds on the ladybird.
• The frog feeds on the dragonfly.
• The snake feeds on the frog.
• The Buzzard eats the snake

Berries >> Greenfly >> Ladybird >> Dragonfly >> Frog >> Snake >> Buzzard.

The above instance is another food chain although it has some links with the first food chain (in explanation 1).

Note: It is this linking of food chains that gives rise to a food web.

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EXPLANATION 3:

• Based on the fact that the grasshopper fed on the plantain and berries; while the frog fed on the grasshopper, then that's a simple food web in the diagram. This is true because it consists of two separate food chains linked together. The first food chain shows berries >> grasshopper >> frog while the second shows plantain >> grasshopper >> frog. Both food chains were initiated separately by the berries and plantain plants respectively (producers in this case) but ended with the same frog.
• Also, you may have observed that apart from the dragonfly feeding on the ladybird, the titmouse also fed on the lady bird.
• Also, the butterfly and titmouse fed on the berries along side the greenfly and grasshopper.
• Similarly, the rabbit, mouse and grasshopper all fed on plantain.
• Again, the buzzard and fox feeds on the mouse and rabbit. We can go on and on but the point to note is:

A food web shows multiple food chains or multiple feeding relationships or multiple feeding connections all linked together.

Understand that a food web always consist of more than one food chain (at least, a minimum of 2 food chains linked together).

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