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The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way ...
In the simplest scheme, the first trophic level (level 1) is plants, then herbivores (level 2), and then carnivores (level 3). The trophic level equals one more than the chain length, which is the number of links connecting to the base. The base of the food chain (primary producers or detritivores) is set at zero.
Thus, bioconcentration and bioaccumulation occur within an organism, and biomagnification occurs across trophic (food chain) levels. Biodilution is also a process that occurs to all trophic levels in an aquatic environment; it is the opposite of biomagnification, thus when a pollutant gets smaller in concentration as it progresses up a food web ...
The removal of top-level predators, often through human agency, can cause or disrupt trophic cascades. [15] [16] [17] For example, a reduction in the population of sperm whales, apex predators with a fractional trophic level of 4.7, by hunting has caused an increase in the population of the large squid, with trophic level over 4 (carnivores ...
Food chain in a Swedish lake. Osprey feed on northern pike, which in turn feed on perch which eat bleak which eat crustaceans.. A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web, often starting with an autotroph (such as grass or algae), also called a producer, and typically ending at an apex predator (such as grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivore (such as earthworms and woodlice ...
Explaining the observed high levels of complexity in ecosystems [1] has been one of the main challenges and motivations for ecological network analysis, since early theory predicted that complexity should lead to instability. [2] Connectance: the proportion of possible links between species that are realized (links/species 2). In food webs, the ...
Field Level Media February 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM Feb 3, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni speaks during Super Bowl LIX Opening Night at Ceasars Superdome.
The mean trophic level is calculated by assigning each fish or invertebrate species a number based on its trophic level.The trophic level is a measure of the position of an organism in a food web, starting at level 1 with primary producers, such as phytoplankton and seaweed, then moving through the primary consumers at level 2 that eat the primary producers to the secondary consumers at level ...