Definitions for food chain
food cha·in

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. food chainnoun

   (ecology) a community of organisms where each member is eaten in turn by another member

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 2 votes

1. food chainnoun

   The feeding relationships between species in a biotic community.

2. food chainnoun

   a hierarchy

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Food chain

   A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivores (like earthworms or woodlice), or decomposer species (such as fungi or bacteria). A food chain also shows how organisms are related to each other by the food they eat. Each level of a food chain represents a different trophic level. A food chain differs from a food web because the complex network of different animals' feeding relations are aggregated and the chain only follows a direct, linear pathway of one animal at a time. Natural interconnections between food chains make it a food web. Food chains were first introduced by the Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 10th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept.A common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the number of links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web. The mean chain length of an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all chains in the food web. The food chain is an energy source diagram. The food chain begins with a producer, which is eaten by a primary consumer. 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 snail might then be the prey of a secondary consumer such as a frog, which itself may be eaten by a tertiary consumer such as a snake which in turn may be consumed by an eagle. Food chains are very important for the survival of most species. When only one element is removed from the food chain it can result in extinction of a species in some cases. The foundation of the food chain consists of primary producers. Primary producers, or autotrophs, utilize energy derived from either sunlight or inorganic chemical compounds to create complex organic compounds, whereas species at higher trophic levels cannot and so must consume producers or other life that itself consumes producers. Because the sun's light is necessary for photosynthesis, most life could not exist if the sun disappeared. Even so, it has recently been discovered that there are some forms of life, chemotrophs, that appear to gain all their metabolic energy from chemosynthesis driven by hydrothermal vents, thus showing that some life may not require solar energy to thrive. Decomposers, which feed on dead animals, break down the organic compounds into simple nutrients that are returned to the soil. These are the simple nutrients that plants require to create organic compounds. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 different decomposers in existence. Many food webs have a keystone species. A keystone species is a species that has a large impact on the surrounding environment and can directly affect the food chain. If this keystone species dies off it can set the entire food chain off balance. Keystone species keep herbivores from depleting all of the foliage in their environment and preventing mass extinction.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. food chain

   A food chain is a linear sequence or a hierarchical setup that represents the flow of energy and nutrients in an ecosystem, starting from primary producers like plants, progressing to primary consumers like herbivores, and then onto secondary and tertiary consumers like carnivores and omnivores. It outlines who eats whom, establishing the relationship between different species in terms of predation, parasitism, and consumption. The food chain ends with apex predators or decomposers which return nutrients back into the soil or environment for use by primary producers.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Food chain

   A food chain is a linear consequence of links in a food web starting from a species that eats no other species in the web and ends at a species that is eaten by no other species in the web. A food chain differs from a food web, because the complex polyphagous network of feeding relations are aggregated into trophic species and the chain only follows linear monophagous pathways. A common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the number of links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web and the mean chain length of an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all chains in a food web. Food chains were first introduced by the African-Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 9th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept.

U.S. National Library of MedicineRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Food Chain

   The sequence of transfers of matter and energy from organism to organism in the form of FOOD. Food chains intertwine locally into a food web because most organisms consume more than one type of animal or plant. PLANTS, which convert SOLAR ENERGY to food by PHOTOSYNTHESIS, are the primary food source. In a predator chain, a plant-eating animal is eaten by a larger animal. In a parasite chain, a smaller organism consumes part of a larger host and may itself be parasitized by smaller organisms. In a saprophytic chain, microorganisms live on dead organic matter.

Matched Categories

1. • Ecology
   • Organic Phenomenon

How to pronounce food chain?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say food chain in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of food chain in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of food chain in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of food chain in a Sentence

1. Jeff Melvoin:

   You think Nature is some Disney movie Nature is a killer. Nature is a bitch. It's feeding time out there 24 hours a day, every step that you take is a gamble with death. If it isn't getting hit with lightning today, it's an earthquake tomorrow or some deer tick carrying Lime disease. Either way, you're ending up on the wrong end of the food chain.

2. Tom Vilsack:

   It is a cascading series of events here that is disrupting the entire food chain, you start ending school lunch programs, universities shut down, food service shuts down, tourism and hotels have low occupancy and at the end of the day you have a tremendous amount of the overall supply of food having to be redirected.

3. Christo Grozev:

   Alexseyev is very high on the food chain, i think he can report directly to (Nikolai) Patrushev.

4. Lori Rosenthal:

   When dining out, we are leaving the ingredients to the chef or fast food chain, when we make our own, we are in control.

5. Blade:

   Dr. Karen Jenson Vampires like you aren't a species, you're just infected, a virus, a sexually transmitted disease. Frost I'll tell you what we are, sister. We're the top of the f***ing food chain.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=food chain
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Food_Chain
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Chain
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=food chain