By feeding!
The components that often make up a food chain are as follows:
- Producers: main source of all food
- Primary Consumers: eat the producers
- Secondary Consumers: eat the primary consumers and producers
- Tertiary Consumers: eat the secondary and primary consumers alongside the producers
- Top Carnivore: consumes all the above organisms
This diagram illustrates all of the levels that can exist in a complex ecosystem.
The energy of a food chain is not created or destroyed, but simply transferred among a variety of biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors. As you move up the food chain, only 10% of the energy is conserved for each level. For example, if a rabbit ate five grams of grass, the rabbit might receive 1000 joules of energy. By the time a coyote eats the rabbit, the coyote has only gained 100 joules of energy. If the coyote becomes the prey of a wolf, the wolf will only receive 10 joules of energy.
This inefficient cycle limits the amount of trophic levels (listed above) that can exist in an ecosystem. Energy flow in an ecosystem affects every aspect of a food chain, including the amount of species that inhabit the area.
