When you hear the term 'food web,' what do you think of?

I am sure you think of a spider web that spiders weave to trap their food on. But what is special about webs, and how does it relate to food?

To review, a food chain is the sequence of events where organisms depend on the next organism for food, energy, or both.

A food web includes different food chains in one picture and shows independent and dependent chains all in one.

In a food web there are three parts: the producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Producers are plants that create and produce their own food with the help of energy from the sun.

Consumers can get energy from both producers as well as other consumers by eating or consuming them. There can be up to three consumers in a single web.

Decomposers take action after a plant or animal has died by breaking it down through decomposition. This is how decomposers get their energy.

So the producers, consumers, and decomposers make up a food web, but get this... there are three types of consumers.

Primary Consumers: or first consumers, are typically connected to the producers because this is typically all they consume.

Secondary Consumers: are after the primary consumers and usually eat those first consumers and sometimes the producers as well.

Tertiary Consumers: are at the top consumers and can consume both secondary and primary consumers and sometimes producers as well.

<- Producers

<- Primary Consumers

<- Secondary Consumers

<- Tertiary Consumers