AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers. They are at the fourth trophic level. In the desert ecosystem, an owl or eagle may prey on a snake. There may be more levels of consumers before a chain finally reaches its top predator.

Detailed explanation-2: -Tertiary consumers are those that eats the secondary consumers (large predators). For example, owls that eat snakes.

Detailed explanation-3: -Primary consumers, mostly herbivores, exist at the next level, and secondary and tertiary consumers, omnivores and carnivores, follow. At the top of the system are the apex predators: animals who have no predators other than humans.

Detailed explanation-4: -Tertiary consumers often occupy the top trophic level, and so are predated by no other animals; in this case they are called “apex predators”. However, when they die their bodies will be consumed by scavengers and decomposers.

Detailed explanation-5: -At the top trophic level, we normally have tertiary consumers, which are not predated by any other animals. And hence the name Apex Predators. However, when tertiary consumers die, their bodies are consumed by scavengers and decomposers. In some food chains, an apex predator exists above the tertiary consumer.