Question 1: What are trophic levels? Give an example of a food chain and state the different trophic levels in it.
Answer:
The sequential inter- linking of organisms involves the transfer of food in the form of energy from producers by the series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten is referred to as the food chain. And, these sequential steps in the food chain are referred as different tropic levels.
Example:- Grassland ecosystem food chain and their different tropic levels
Grasses ← Insects ← Frogs ← Snake ← Predatory birds
Producers Herbivores Primary Secondary Tertiary carnivores
carnivores carnivores
Trophic levels are the nutritional levels in which food energy is transferred from one level to another level. In this above example, producers are the green plant (grasses) which is first trophic level; herbivores (insects) are the secondary trophic levels which are the plant eaters also called primary consumers belongs to secondary trophic level; then came primary carnivores (frogs) also called secondary consumers which feeds on primary consumers. And, then secondary carnivores (snake) which are the flesh eaters as like primary carnivores also called tertiary consumers; And then quaternary consumer (predatory birds) level came which are the tertiary carnivores. The maximum step in the food chain is 4 or 5.
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