Food Webs

Food webs illustrate the interconnected relationships among various organisms in an ecosystem, showing how energy and nutrients flow through different levels of producers, consumers, and decomposers. At the base are producers, like plants, which create energy from sunlight. Above them are primary consumers (herbivores), followed by secondary and tertiary consumers (carnivores and omnivores). Decomposers break down dead material, returning nutrients to the soil. Unlike simple food chains, food webs highlight the complexity of interactions, demonstrating that a change in one species can ripple through the entire ecosystem, affecting many others.