1Energy from the Sun
Almost every food chain starts with the Sun. A plant uses light energy to make its own food by photosynthesis, so it is called a producer. Animals get their energy by eating.
producer
Lesson 25.1 notes
Food chains and webs
Producers and consumers, reading the arrows, food webs, and the decomposers that recycle what dies.
2A food chain
A food chain shows what eats what: grass → rabbit → fox. The rabbit eats the grass and the fox eats the rabbit, so energy passes along the chain.
food chain
3Reading the arrows
Each arrow points from the food to the eater, the way the energy goes. Read it as ‘is eaten by’: grass is eaten by the rabbit, and the rabbit by the fox.
4Producers and consumers
Animals are consumers. A primary consumer eats producers, a secondary consumer eats primary consumers, and a tertiary consumer eats those. Oak → caterpillar → blue tit → owl has all four levels.
consumers
5Predators and prey
A predator hunts and eats other animals, its prey. The fox is a predator and the rabbit is its prey. Herbivores eat only plants; omnivores, like foxes, eat plants and animals.
predatorprey
6A food web
Most animals eat more than one kind of food, and many have several predators. So food chains join into a food web: each path from a producer along the arrows is a food chain.
food web
7Decomposers
When plants and animals die, decomposers such as fungi and bacteria break them down. This releases minerals into the soil, which plants take up through their roots and use to grow.
decomposers
Explore: Web lab
Tap any plant or animal to see what eats it and, for an animal, what it eats, then step through every food chain in the woodland web.
Common mistake: The arrow points from the food to the eater
In grass → rabbit → fox, each arrow shows energy passing into the animal that eats. So read an arrow as ‘is eaten by’: the grass is eaten by the rabbit.
Remember
- A food chain starts with a producer: a plant or alga that makes its own food using light. Each arrow points from the food to the eater.
- Primary consumers eat producers; secondary consumers eat primary consumers. A predator hunts and eats its prey.
- Most animals eat several things, so food chains join into a food web. Decomposers break down dead things and return minerals to the soil.
Going further at GCSE