What are trophic levels? Give an example of a food chain and state the different trophic levels in it.

Trophic levels refer to the different positions in a food chain or web occupied by organisms based on what they eat and what eats them. The term “trophic” comes from the Greek word for “nourishment.”

An example of a food chain is:

Grass –> Grasshopper –> Frog –> Snake –> Hawk

There are four trophic levels in this food chain:

Producers: In this food chain, the producers are the grasses. They are called producers because they produce their own food through photosynthesis, using energy from the sun.

Primary consumers: The primary consumers are the grasshoppers. They eat the grasses, which makes them herbivores or plant eaters.

Secondary consumers: The secondary consumers are the frogs. They eat the primary consumers, which in this case are the grasshoppers. This makes them carnivores or meat eaters.

Tertiary consumers: The tertiary consumers are the snakes and hawks. They eat the secondary consumers, which in this case are the frogs. This makes them also carnivores.

Each trophic level in a food chain is dependent on the one below it for energy. When an organism consumes another organism, it obtains the energy stored in the organism it consumes. As a result, each trophic level has less energy available to it than the one below it. This is because some energy is lost as heat and waste as it passes from one trophic level to the next.