EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The first and lowest level contains the producers, green plants. The plants or their products are consumed by the second-level organisms-the herbivores, or plant eaters. At the third level, primary carnivores, or meat eaters, eat the herbivores; and at the fourth level, secondary carnivores eat the primary carnivores.

Detailed explanation-2: -The lowest trophic level is primary producers, such as algae and phytoplankton, which generate their own energy from the sun via photosynthesis.

Detailed explanation-3: -Trophic levels can be represented by numbers, starting at level 1 with plants. Further trophic levels are numbered subsequently according to how far the organism is along the food chain. Plants and algae make their own food and are called producers. Herbivores eat plants and are called primary consumers.

Detailed explanation-4: -It follows that the carnivores (secondary consumers) that feed on herbivores and detritivores and those that eat other carnivores (tertiary consumers) have the lowest amount of energy available to them.

Detailed explanation-5: -First Trophic Level: Autotrophs. Second Trophic Level: Primary Consumers. Third Trophic Level: Secondary Consumers. Fourth Trophic Level: Tertiary Consumers. Fifth Trophic Level: Quaternary Consumers.