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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 ...
Saprotrophic microscopic fungi are sometimes called saprobes. [4] Saprotrophic plants or bacterial flora are called saprophytes ( sapro- 'rotten material' + -phyte 'plant'), although it is now believed [ citation needed ] that all plants previously thought to be saprotrophic are in fact parasites of microscopic fungi or of other plants .
Aspergillus niger is a prime example of this; it can be found growing on damp walls, as a major component of mildew. [ citation needed ] Several species of Aspergillus , including A. niger and A. fumigatus , will readily colonise buildings, [ 7 ] favouring warm and damp or humid areas such as bathrooms and around window frames .
Decomposers are often left off food webs, but if included, they mark the end of a food chain. [6] Thus food chains start with primary producers and end with decay and decomposers. Since decomposers recycle nutrients, leaving them so they can be reused by primary producers, they are sometimes regarded as occupying their own trophic level.
Brown-rot fungi are prevalent on conifer hosts and open, sun-exposed habitats. The fungal community in any single trunk may include both white-rot and brown-rot species, complementing each other's wood degradation strategies. Polypores and other decomposer fungi are the first step in food chains that feed on decomposed plant material.
A freshwater aquatic food web. The blue arrows show a complete food chain (algae → daphnia → gizzard shad → largemouth bass → great blue heron). A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.
A food web model is a network of food chains. Each food chain starts with a primary producer or autotroph, an organism, such as an alga or a plant, which is able to manufacture its own food. Next in the chain is an organism that feeds on the primary producer, and the chain continues in this way as a string of successive predators.
In fact dimitic fungi almost always contain generative and skeletal hyphae; there is one exceptional genus, Laetiporus that includes only generative and binding hyphae. Skeletal and binding hyphae give leathery and woody fungi such as polypores their tough consistency. If a fungus contains all three types (example: Trametes), it is called trimitic.