Grassland Food Chain and Food Web Overview

What is a Food Chain?

Animals eat to get energy in the form of nutrients. A food chain is a feeding relationship between organisms in the form of a linear flow of energy that shows 'who eats whom' within an ecosystem. In a food chain, nutrients are passed from one organism to the next. For example, grass produces its food from sunlight, an impala eats the grass, then the impala is later eaten by a cheetah.

Grassland Food Chain

A food chain begins with the producers (autotrophs), these are the organisms that make their own food. Producers turn sunlight's energy, carbon dioxide (CO2), and water (H2O) into organic compounds (foods). The food produced is later used by the organism for energy. Different species of grasses and wildflowers are examples of grassland producers. Organisms that are incapable of producing their own food must consume producers or other organisms that eat the producers to get energy. These organisms are called consumers (heterotrophs). Organisms that strictly eat producers are called primary consumers. Primary consumers only eat plant material, thus, they are called herbivores. A grassland's primary consumers include insects, small mammals like hares, squirrels, and some larger mammals like zebras. If the organisms eat primary consumers and/or producers, then they are referred to as secondary consumers. Examples of secondary consumers of the grasslands include snakes and hyenas. The chain continues with tertiary consumers who eat secondary consumers and may also eat primary consumers and/or producers. Examples of tertiary consumers of the grasslands include wild dogs, lions, and vultures. The consumers that feed on other animals are called carnivores.

The food chain order is as follows:

• Producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers

Zebras are primary consumers because they eat grass

The following is an example of a food chain in the grasslands:

• Producer: Grass
• Primary consumer: Grasshopper
• Secondary consumer: Prairie Dog
• Tertiary consumer: Coyote

In this example, the grass makes its own food for energy. The grasshopper eats the grass and gets its nutrients which it converts into energy. The prairie dog then eats the grasshopper and some of these nutrients are passes onto the prairie dog for energy. The coyote then eats the prairie dog, and the trend continues. If any of the prairie dog is left to decompose, it can be eaten by vultures. In this example, vultures act as quaternary consumers instead of tertiary consumers as previously mentioned because they ate the prairie dog, which was a tertiary consumer. Note that the level an animal is on the chain can change depending on 'who eats whom.' Uneaten dead animals may also be broken down into nutrients by decomposers like bacteria, fungi (mushrooms), and earthworms. These nutrients then go back into the soil where primary producers (like grass) use them to grow. The primary consumers then eat the producers, and the cycle continues.