Compare energy transfer in a food chain to engery transfer in a food web?

Answer 1

Food "chains" have sort of become obsolete. When I first learned about them I was in elementary school and by the time I got to high school they had stopped studying food chains and moved on to food webs. I was first taught about food chains using a "field" environment. The sun makes the grass grow, the grass gets eaten by a grasshopper, the grasshopper gets eaten by a mouse, the mouse gets eaten by a hawk. But now they teach about food webs. The sun makes the grass grow, the grass could be eaten by a grasshopper or something else, then the grasshopper gets eaten by a rat, mouse, or maybe it becomes your kittens new play toy, the rat or mouse could be eaten by a hawk or any other type of bird that eats those kind of critters. It's all connected now unlike it just being a straight line like it was when I was in elementary school.

Answer 2

The difference between food chains and food webs is that chains show diagrams of the many different animals top to bottom, where the top is considered the start for the weakest link of preys, and the bottom is strongest of all predators. Food webs are more based on consumers and production, and the circle of life could be one great example for chains, for which one organism preys on another. These organisms consist of carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.