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Includes classroom objectives, materials, procedure, and curriculum-aligned standards for grades 3–5.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/","Healthcare",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/food-chains-and-food-webs-food-chains-food-webs-energy-loss-food-pyramid/408970/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/food-chains-and-food-webs-food-chains-food-webs-energy-loss-food-pyramid/408970.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Noah","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is a food chain and what do the arrows represent?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"A food chain shows relationships between producers, consumers, and decomposers, indicating who eats whom. The arrows represent the movement of energy through the chain.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does a food web differ from a food chain?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"A food web is made of interconnected food chains and includes many non-linear interactions. Because animals may eat multiple types of food, the system becomes more complex.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the number of organisms usually increase at lower levels of the food pyramid?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Only about 10% of energy transfers to the next level, while about 90% is lost. Lower levels therefore need many more organisms to support the higher levels.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},408970,1790736085,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":107,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":107,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},8796095462418,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780","FOOD CHAINS AND FOOD WEBS  \nFood Chains  \nAll living organisms (plants and animals) must eat some type of food for survival. Plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. Using the energy from the sun, water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrients, they chemically make their own food. Since they make or produce their own food they are called producers.  \nOrganisms which do not create their own food must eat either plants or animals. They are called consumers. Some animals get their energy from eating plants while other animals get energy indirectly from plants by eating other animals that already ate the plants. Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores. Animals that eat both plants and other animals are called omnivores. Animals that eat only other animals are called carnivores. Some animals eat only dead or decaying materials and are called decomposers.  \nIn the marine food web, special producers are found. They are tiny microscopic plants called phytoplankton. Since the water is the home for these special tiny plants; it is also the home for tiny microscopic animals called zooplankton. And of course, zooplankton eat phytoplankton. Sometimes zooplankton and phytoplankton are collectively referred to as plankton.  \nFood chains show the relationships between producers, consumers, and decomposers, showing who eats whom with arrows. The arrows show the movement of energy through the food chain. For example, in the food chain shown below, the small fish (silverside) gets its energy by eating the plankton and the large fish (bluefish) gets its energy by eating the small fish. Finally, the bacteria eats the fish after it dies, getting its energy from the large fish. The bacteria also returns nutrients back to the environment for use by the phytoplankton.  \nPHYTOPLANKTON  ZOOPLANKTON  SILVERSIDE  BLUEFISH  \nNUTRIENTS  \nBACTERIA  \nThus the food chain becomes a complete circle. Animals may eat more than one type of food. They may eat many different types of plants or many different animals. This makes everything more complicated and the food chain becomes a food web.  \nFood Webs  \nA food web is made up of interconnected food chains. Most communities include various populations of producer organisms which are eaten by any number of consumer populations. The green crab, for example, is a consumer as well as a decomposer. The  \ncrab will eat dead things or living things if it can catch them. A secondary consumer may also eat any number of primary consumers or producers. This non-linear set of interactions which shows the complex flow of energy in nature is more easily visualized in the following diagram.  \nIn a food web nutrients are recycled in the end by decomposers. Animals like shrimp and crabs can break the materials down to detritus. Then bacteria reduce the detritus to nutrients. Decomposers work at every level, setting free nutrients that form an essential part of the total food web.  \nENERGY LOSS IN THE FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD WEB  \nIn a food chain, energy is lost in each step of the chain in two forms: first by the organism producing heat and doing work, and second, by the food that is not completely digested or absorbed. Therefore, the food web depends on a constant supply of energy from producers and nutrients that are recycled by the decomposition of organisms.  \nAs food is passed along the food chain, only about 10% of the energy is transferred to the next level. For example, 10% of the energy phytoplankton received from the sun can be used by zooplankton at the next level. From one level to the next about 90% of the energy used by the previous level is lost. This means that there has to be a lot more organisms atthe lower levels than at the upper levels. The number of organisms at each level makes a pyramid shape and is called a food pyramid. To better understand this energy loss, it is helpful to look at a food pyramid.  \nAmount of Biomass passed up the Food Pyramid  \n(in pounds)  \n","cbCaihWxhPTWkaro","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihWxhPTWkaro","pdf",110310,"English","# Food Chains\n## Food Webs\n## Energy Loss in the Food Chain and Food Web\n## Food Pyramid\n## Producers, Consumers and Decomposers\n## Objectives, Materials, Procedure\n## Curriculum Connections (Massachusetts, Grades 3-5)","[{\"question\":\"What is a food chain and what do the arrows represent?\",\"answer\":\"A food chain shows relationships between producers, consumers, and decomposers, indicating who eats whom. The arrows represent the movement of energy through the chain.\"},{\"question\":\"How does a food web differ from a food chain?\",\"answer\":\"A food web is made of interconnected food chains and includes many non-linear interactions. Because animals may eat multiple types of food, the system becomes more complex.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the number of organisms usually increase at lower levels of the food pyramid?\",\"answer\":\"Only about 10% of energy transfers to the next level, while about 90% is lost. Lower levels therefore need many more organisms to support the higher levels.\"}]","Food Chains and Food Webs - Food Chains - Food Webs - Energy Loss - Food Pyramid | PDF",1790581039,18]