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Tertiary consumers, which are sometimes also known as apex predators, are hypercarnivorous or omnivorous animals usually at the top of food chains, capable of feeding on both secondary consumers and primary consumers. Tertiary consumers are usually the largest, strongest and most aggressive animal in the local environment. Both secondary and ...
Note: trophic levels are not drawn to scale and the pyramid of numbers excludes microorganisms and soil animals. Abbreviations: P=Producers, C1=Primary consumers, C2=Secondary consumers, C3=Tertiary consumers, S=Saprotrophs. [6] A four level trophic pyramid sitting on a layer of soil and its community of decomposers.
The primary consumer may be eaten by a secondary consumer, which in turn may be consumed by a tertiary consumer. The tertiary consumers may sometimes become prey to the top predators known as the quaternary consumers. For example, a food chain might start with a green plant as the producer, which is eaten by a snail, the primary consumer.
Consumers are broken down into primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers. Carnivores have a much higher assimilation of energy, about 80% and herbivores have a much lower efficiency of approximately 20 to 50%. [16] Energy in a system can be affected by animal emigration/immigration.
In addition to observational studies of animal behavior, and quantification of animal stomach contents, trophic level can be quantified through stable isotope analysis of animal tissues such as muscle, skin, hair, bone collagen. This is because there is a consistent increase in the nitrogen isotopic composition at each trophic level caused by ...
Carnivores that feed on herbivores are secondary consumers; their predators are tertiary consumers, and so forth. [129] 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]
A top-down cascade is a trophic cascade where the top consumer/predator controls the primary consumer population. In turn, the primary producer population thrives. The removal of the top predator can alter the food web dynamics. In this case, the primary consumers would overpopulate and exploit the primary producers.
In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but not producers. [3] [4] Living organisms that are heterotrophic include all animals and fungi, some bacteria and protists, [5] and many parasitic plants.