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An example is the koala, because it feeds only on eucalyptus leaves. Primary consumers that feed on many kinds of plants are called generalists. Secondary consumers are small/medium-sized carnivores that prey on herbivorous animals. Omnivores, which feed on both plants and animals, can be considered as being both primary and secondary consumers.
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.
The number of trophic links per consumer is a measure of food web connectance. Food chains are nested within the trophic links of food webs. Food chains are linear (noncyclic) feeding pathways that trace monophagous consumers from a base species up to the top consumer, which is usually a larger predatory carnivore. [8] [9] [10]
Secondary consumers can vary widely in how efficient they are in consuming. [16] The efficiency of energy being passed on to consumers is estimated to be around 10%. [ 16 ] Energy flow through consumers differs in aquatic and terrestrial environments.
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A 2013 study estimates the average trophic level of human beings at 2.21, similar to pigs or anchovies. [10] This is only an average, and plainly both modern and ancient human eating habits are complex and vary greatly. For example, a traditional Inuit living on a diet consisting primarily of seals would have a trophic level of nearly 5. [11]
For example, a top-down cascade can occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior, of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation. A top-down cascade is a trophic cascade where the top consumer/predator controls the primary consumer population. In turn, the ...
Top-down effects occur when the population density of a consumer affects that of its resource; [10] for example, a predator affects the density of its prey. Top-down control, therefore, refers to situations where the abundance, diversity or biomass of lower trophic levels depends on effects from consumers at higher trophic levels. [10]