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An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator [a] at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics , meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels .
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 ...
At the top of this food chain are apex predators such as lions. [130] Many predators however eat from multiple levels of the food chain; a carnivore may eat both secondary and tertiary consumers. [131] This means that many predators must contend with intraguild predation, where other predators kill and eat them.
Food chain length is another way of describing food webs as a measure of the number of species encountered as energy or nutrients move from the plants to top predators. [ 41 ] : 269 There are different ways of calculating food chain length depending on what parameters of the food web dynamic are being considered: connectance, energy, or ...
In real-world ecosystems, there is more than one food chain for most organisms, since most organisms eat more than one kind of food or are eaten by more than one type of predator. A diagram that sets out the intricate network of intersecting and overlapping food chains for an ecosystem is called its food web. [6]
At the top of the food web is the apex predator, this animal species is not consumed by any other in the community. Herbivores, omnivores and carnivores are all heterotrophs. [8] A basic example of a food chain is; grass → rabbit → fox. Food chains become more complex when more species are present, often being food webs.
According to the documents these symbols are indicative of advertisement methods used by child sexual predators to promote their cause and advocate for the social acceptance of sexual ...
Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, [1] and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (see parasitism), plant-herbivore and victim-exploiter systems.