Trophic level - food chain element

Studying the biotic structures of different ecosystems, scientists noticed that all organisms in them are built into food chains. And such chains in each such ecosystem can be traced a lot. According to them, the substance that is the source of energy, as well as the building material, moves from one organism to another. That is, one organism eats the other, and it is in turn eaten by the third. Here is a simple example of such a chain: grass - cow - man.

And all these chains are rarely isolated from each other - they are all united into one food web. The relationship in this network is rather complicated. For example, herbivorous animals feed on several species of plants. And predators are also not very choosy in choosing meat for their diet. But, despite the fact that there are a lot of such food networks and they are all quite diverse - they can be entered into one scheme. And this scheme looks like this: green plants - primary consumers - secondary consumers - tertiary consumers - reproducents. And reproducers always stand at the end of the food chain, and there can be several consumers in it. All these links are called trophic levels.

That is, from the scientific point of view, the trophic level is the whole set of organisms that occupy a certain place in the food web. And in a typical ecosystem, you can count no more than 3-4 of these levels. The first trophic level is certainly plants. From them all food chains begin . The second trophic level is occupied by phytophagous, that is, herbivorous. These are consumers of the first order and eat only the flora.

The third trophic level is occupied by consumers of the second order. They are predators that feed only on herbivores. Also here may be eurifagi, that is, omnivores. They can equally eat both plant and animal food. These include pigs, foxes, rats, cockroaches and the like. Man is inherently an euryphage. Also at this level, there may be third-order consuments - such predators that feed on only carnivorous animals.

And the last trophic level is usually occupied by decomposers, that is, heterotrophic organisms. They destroy, mineralize and destruct the waste of ecosystems. After their "work", simple mineral compounds are obtained. And the decomposers, in turn, are divided into two classes. These are detritophages - animals that feed directly on organic remains and dead organisms. These include vultures, vultures, jackals, hyenas, earthworms and other "scavengers".

Also to the decomposers are destructors. They are already decomposing the dead "organic" into inorganic compounds. Simply put, they support the processes of decomposition and decay. These include bacteria and fungi. And all these trophic chains are arranged so that producers, consumers and decomposers through them closely interact. They support the integrity and structure of biocenoses, while coordinating the flows of matter and energy. This contributes to the regulation of the environment.

Graphically, such a trophic structure of the ecological system can be depicted as a pyramid of energy flows. Its basis is the producer or the 1st trophic level. And all the subsequent levels are floors and the top of this pyramid. And through each of these levels there is a flow of energy. In this case, the energy coming from one level is the input energy for the next one. And the main reason for such a small number of trophic levels in each ecosystem is that a significant portion of the energy during these transitions is lost. Here the rule is 10%, and according to it only such an amount of useful energy is transferred to the next level. And 10% is the maximum figure. In some ecosystems, this efficiency is only one percent.