The concept of food chain is used to name the interrelation which establish living beings that feed on each other in a certain order. The idea of chain It refers to the fact that one organism eats another and, in turn, is eaten by a third party.
Also called food chain , the food chain reveals the food links between decomposers, consumers and producers . It is a power current that starts with the photosynthesis : that energy, through nutrition, is then transferred from one organism to another.
The members of the food chain must be part of a set of organisms called biological community , biotic , ecological Or simply, biocenosis . These are the species that share the same biotope (an area whose environmental properties give rise to the life of a certain flora and fauna).
The biological community is divided into three well-defined sets: that of plants, that of animals and that of microorganisms, which are known by the names phytocenosis, zoocenosis and microbiocenosisrespectively. If we rely on a definition of ecosystem provided by the botanist Arthur Tansley In 1935, we can say that it is made up of both a biocenosis and its corresponding biotope.
It can be said, therefore, that the food chain begins with photosynthetic plants that create organic matter from inorganic using the Energy of the sun's rays. These living beings act as producers . The chain continues with the consumers : organisms that feed on organic matter that comes from other species. Finally we have the decomposers , which feed on waste and remains.
Take the case of a rodent It feeds on plants. In this way you get the energy you need to survive. This rodent can become, in turn, the food of a Fox . Then the fox, at death, is eaten by a carrion bird . As you can see, all these animals (rodent, fox and carrion bird) are links in the food chain and each constitutes a trophic level different.
It is important to note that throughout the passage through the trophic chain a great loss of energy is generated, as it is transferred from a link To the next one. In other words, a high level consumer receives a much smaller amount of energy than a low one. In this context we talk about consumer primary, secondary, etc. Because of this phenomenon, it is believed that it is not possible to extend a trophic chain beyond quaternary consumers; In fact, in general it only reaches the tertiary level.
If, for some reason, one of the links in the trophic chain disappears, a fatal imbalance can be generated for the entire biological community . Taking the previous example, if the human being deforests the region and the rodent no longer has plants to eat, it can become extinct. Thus the fox runs out of food, also affecting the carrion bird.
The human being not only interferes negatively through the way in which it relates to plants and soil, but its role within the trophic chain it has distorted to the point that it does not appear to be part of this planet.
Unlike all other Earth species , ours does not use its own tools to get its food: it does not tear the leaves of the trees with its own mouth or tear its prey with its own hands, but relies on an abusive system of animal husbandry and killing, as well as in massive and artificial plantations that package the food and distribute it in commercial stores. This, which makes us feel superior to others, should shame us for having lost our identity .
