Definition of food web - What is it, Meaning and Concept

The structure formed by the feeding interrelations between the members of a ecosystem . is known as food network. network , the different species transfer nutrients and energy : each species feeds on another and in turn is the food of a third.

The food web It is also called food chain , food chain or food chain .The species are the nodes of the network or the links in the chain: to survive, they get energy from those that are located at a lower level.In other words: a species, by feeding on another, receives what it needs to continue living.

It is important to establish that in every trophic chain you can establish three types of protagonists, such as the following, based on what is the passage of energy:-The pr Oductors, which would be the plants and that are characterized because they have the ability to generate energy by themselves, specifically through the process known as photosynthesis.-Consumers, who come to be the animals and what they do is obtain energy feeding on other species.This would be the case, for example, of carnivorous animals.-The decomposers.These are the beings that do what they do is to degrade the organic matter that has been derived from the other “scales” of the food chain.

Based on all this we find the fact that the triangular shaped food web is composed of the following levels, from the lower to the upper: decomposers, plants and consumers, where herbivores, primary predators are found and secondary predators.

Because it is a network or chain , the species that eats another is, simultaneously, food of a different species.For example: a snake can feed on a rodent , but at the same time it is prey to a hawk.The rodent, on the other hand, is ingested by the snake and feeds on insects.Thus, from the links between the members of the biological community, the food web is formed.

This functioning of the food web means that, if a species disappears, the whole system will become unbalanced and may even collapse.Suppose, by action of the man , a species X is extinguished.All animals that fed on that species are left without food and can no longer subsist.In turn, those species that were predated by the missing species, begin to multiply its quantity of specimens, something that ends up exerting pressure for the disappearance of new species.

In addition to that circumstance, the food web can be affected by numerous other reasons.Thus, in particular, one of the more serious damage that can suffer is acid rain.And it can cause it to eliminate, for example, phytoplankton, which is what insects feed on.That when that disappears, they can subsist us as they should so they could die and that would trigger that, in turn, the animal species that eat those can end up going through the same trance and so on with the rest of this food chain.