FOOD WEB

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
BY :

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What is a “FOOD WEB” ?

Food web is defined as ‘A network

of food chains which are interconnected at
various tropic levels, so as to form a number of
feeding connections amongst different
organisms of a biotic community’.
• Also known as consumer-resource system.
• It is a graphical description of feeding
relationships
among species in an ecological community. It is
also a
mean of showing how energy and materials flow
through
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a community of species as a result of these07/11/201
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Types of FOOD WEB
representation :

Topological
webs

Interactcio
Flow webs
n webs

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TOPOLOGICAL WEB’S :

• Early food webs were topological.

•They simply indicate a feeding relationship.
•Suppose individuals of species X eat 10,000
individuals of species Y, and one X is seen
eating one
individual of species Q.
•A topological web then shows an arrow from Y
to X,
and an arrow from Q to X. This makes it look as
though
both prey are equally important to X. But
they’re not! 6
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FLOW WEB’S :

•Bio energetic webs, or flow webs, include

information
on the strength of the feeding interaction. This
can be
done in one of two ways:
•Vary the size of the arrow. Thicker arrows
represent a
larger percentage of the diet (interactions
where more
prey are eaten or where more energy flows
upward).
•The amount of energy moving between nodes 7
next to 07/11/201
INTERACTION WEB’S :

•An interaction web is similar to a topological

web, but
instead of showing the movement of energy or .
materials, the arrows show how one group
influences
another.
•In interaction food web models, every link has
two
direct effects.
•One of the resource on the consumer and one of
the
consumer on the resource. 8
•The effect of the resource on the consumer07/11/201
is
Different FOOD WEB’S :

SOIL food AQUATIC

webs food webs

Food web
in FOREST

Food web In
of TERRESTIAL
GRASSLAN & ACQUATIC
D ECOSYSTEM 9
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SOIL FOOD WEB :
•The soil food web is the community of
organisms living
all or part of their lives in the soil.
•It describes a complex living system in the soil
and how
it interacts with the environment, plants, and
animals.
•The soil food web is similar to the food chain,
except
that the typical food chain is linear, while the
soil food
web shows everything that can eat or be eaten
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in a 07/11/201
SOIL FOOD WEB :
•Minute creatures, also called soil biota, which
bring the
soil to life. Soil biota come in many forms. Some
help
to build healthy soil and support healthy plants,
and
these are considered beneficial.
•Others can cause many problems and are
considered
pathogens.
Earthwor
Bacteria
ms
CLITTERS OF SOIL FOOD WEB :
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AQUATIC FOOD WEB :
•Food chain which occurs in aquatic water is
called
aquatic food chain.
•Example :
Alga Protozo Small
e a insects

Small Large
fishes aquatic
insects
Large
fishes
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AQUATIC FOOD WEB :
•A balanced food web is essential to any marine
or fresh
water system, and can be an indicator of habitat
quality.
•Planktonic algae are the foundation of aquatic
food
webs.
•The size & diversity of the planktonic algae
community
determines the diversity of zooplankton
community
that can be supported as well as small fish
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Significance of FOOD WEB :
•Food webs distinguish levels of producers and
consumers by identifying and defining the
importance of
animal relationships and food sources,
beginning with
primary producers such as plants, insects and
herbivores.
•Food webs are important tools in understanding
that
plants are the foundation of all ecosystems and
food
chains, sustaining life by providing nourishment
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Effects of FOOD WEB :
•Man is disturbing the food chain and making it
short.
•The shortening of food chain due to man’s
activities
leads to imbalance in the functioning of an
ecosystem
and ultimately the biosphere.

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A Simplified Community Food 20

Web:
Energy flow and biomass: 21

 Food webs depict energy flow via

trophic linkages.
 Energy flow is directional, which
contrasts against the cyclic flows of
material through the food web
systems.
  Energy flow "typically includes
production, consumption,
assimilation, non-assimilation losses
(feces), and respiration (maintenance
costs).
 In a very general sense, energy flow 22

(E) can be defined as the sum

of metabolic production (P) and
respiration (R), such that E=P+R.

Energy flow diagram of a frog.

 The frog represents a node in an 23

extended food web.

 The energy ingested is utilized for
metabolic processes and transformed
into biomass.
 The energy flow continues on its path
if the frog is ingested by predators,
parasites, or as a decaying carcass in
soil.
 This energy flow diagram illustrates
how energy is lost as it fuels the
metabolic process that transform the
energy and nutrients into biomass.
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 Biomass represents stored energy.

 However, concentration and quality of
nutrients and energy is variable.
 Many plant fibers, for example, are
indigestible to many herbivores leaving
grazer community food webs more
nutrient limited than detrital food webs
where bacteria are able to access and
release the nutrient and energy stores.
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Kinds of food webs:

Food webs are necessarily aggregated and only illustrate a tiny

portion of the complexity of real ecosystems.
 For example, the number of species on the planet are likely in the
general order of 107, over 95% of these species consist of microbes
and invertebrates, and relatively few have been named or classified
by taxonomists .
It is explicitly understood that natural systems are 'sloppy' and that
food web trophic positions simplify the complexity of real systems that
sometimes overemphasize many rare interactions.
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Most studies focus on the larger
influences where the bulk of energy
transfer occurs“
These omissions and problems are
causes for concern, but on present
evidence do not present
insurmountable difficulties.
Kinds of food
webs:
 Sourc
e web  Sink
web
Kinds of food webs:
 Energy
flow web
 Communit
y web
 Paleoecologi
cal web

 Function
al web  Detrital
web
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Source web - one or more node(s), all of their

predators, all the food these predators eat, and so
on.
Sink web - one or more node(s), all of their prey,
all the food that these prey eat, and so on.
Community (or connectedness) web - a group
of nodes and all the connections of who eats
whom.
Energy flow web - quantified fluxes of energy
between nodes along links between a resource and
a consumer.
Paleoecological web - a web that reconstructs
ecosystems from the fossil record.
 Functional web - emphasizes the
functional significance of certain
connections having strong interaction
strength and greater bearing on
community organization, more so
than energy flow pathways.
• Functional webs have compartments,
which are sub-groups in the larger
network where there are different
densities and strengths of interaction.
 Detrital web -In a detrital web, plant
and animal matter is broken down by
decomposers],
THANK YOU