AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Basically, food web represents feeding relationships within a community (Smith and Smith 2009). It also implies the transfer of food energy from its source in plants through herbivores to carnivores (Krebs 2009). Normally, food webs consist of a number of food chains meshed together.

Detailed explanation-2: -Consumers may be identified by their position in a chain: first order (primary) consumers eat producers; second order (secondary) consumers eat primary consumers; third order (tertiary) consumers eat secondary, and so on along a chain. Consumers high in a food chain do not necessarily eat all species lower down.

Detailed explanation-3: -Animals are consumers and they all depend on plants for survival. Some eat plants directly, while others eat animals that eat the plants. In turn, some plants depend on animals to help spread their seed. Decomposing animal carcasses can also provide nutrients for plants to grow.

Detailed explanation-4: -A food chain outlines who eats whom. A food web is all of the food chains in an ecosystem. Each organism in an ecosystem occupies a specific trophic level or position in the food chain or web. Producers, who make their own food using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis, make up the bottom of the trophic pyramid.

Detailed explanation-5: -A carnivorous animal that hunts other animals is called a predator; an animal that is hunted is called prey.