Introduction to Ecology Biology Diagrams Food Chains and Food Webs. In ecology, a food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass: primary producers, primary consumers, and higher-level consumers are used to describe ecosystem structure and dynamics. There is a single path through the chain. Food chains do not accurately describe most ecosystems. Food webs and the carbon cycle are very closely related because every living organism is made up of carbon. When a cow eats grass, it is consuming carbon. When a person eats the cow, the person consumes carbon. Thus, carbon moves through food webs. It leaves living organisms through respiration and when organisms die and decompose. Animals eat plants and either breath out the carbon, or it moves up the food chain. When plants and animals die and decay, they transfer carbon back to the soil. As the water warms, the carbon is then be released as a gas back into the atmosphere, continuing the carbon cycle. Carbon is found in the atmosphere as Carbon dioxide, which is a
Carbon moves from one storage reservoir to another through a variety of mechanisms. For example, in the food chain, plants move carbon from the atmosphere into the biosphere through photosynthesis. They use energy from the sun to chemically combine carbon dioxide with hydrogen and oxygen from water to create sugar molecules. Food chains, the nitrogen cycle, and the carbon cycle are examples of these interactions. A food chain is the sequence of steps through which the process of energy transfer occurs in an ecosystem. All organisms need a continuous supply of energy. Energy flows throughan ecosystem in one directionโ through foodchains.
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The biological carbon cycle is the rapid exchange of carbon among living things; autotrophs use carbon dioxide produced by heterotrophs to produce glucose and oxygen, which are then utilized by heterotrophs. Oceanic algae contribute enormous quantities of food and oxygen to global food chains. Carbon dioxide is the basic building block that Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is taken up by green plants and other photosynthetic organisms and is converted into organic molecules that travel through the food chain. Carbon atoms are then released as carbon dioxide when organisms respire. The formation of fossil fuels and sedimentary rocks contributes to the carbon cycle for very long All species within ecosystems contribute to regulating carbon cycling because of their functional integration into food webs. Yet carbon modeling and accounting still assumes that only plants, microbes, and invertebrate decomposer species are relevant to the carbon cycle. Our multifaceted review develops a case for considering a wider range of species, especially herbivorous and carnivorous
