Why is the food chain so important?
Food chains are important because they show the intricate relationships in ecosystems. They can reveal how each organism depends on someone else for survival. Food chains also display what happens when a problem occurs and a producer or consumer is lost. Entire communities can collapse.
What is the Great Lakes food chain?
In the Great Lakes, producers can be microscopic phytoplankton (plant plankton), algae, aquatic plants like Elodea, or plants like cattails that emerge from the water’s surface. Herbivores, such as ducks, small fish and many species of zooplankton (animal plankton) eat plants.
What is the most important part of a food chain and why?
Decomposers break down dead plants and animals. They also break down the waste of other organisms. They are an important element in the food chain because they keep up a continuous flow of nutrients for the primary producers.
How are plants involved in the Great Lakes food chain?
Plants form the base of Great Lakes food chains. They’re called producers, because they make their own food by converting sunlight through photosynthesis. They also act as food, providing energy for other organisms. In the Great Lakes, most producers are phytoplankton, or microscopic floating plants.
How does the food chain in Lake George work?
Primary producers. In Lake George, the food chain begins with the primary producers. These plants and plant-like algae, or phytoplankton, take in carbon dioxide and water and, with the sun’s energy, produce their own food in the form of a sugar. They then give off oxygen, an extremely important element for all aquatic animals.
Which is an important part of the food chain?
Carnivores (meat eaters) eat other animals and can be small (e.g., frog) or large (e.g., lake trout). Omnivores are animals (including humans) that eat both plants and animals. Each is an important part of the food chain. In reality, food chains overlap at many points — because animals often feed on multiple species — forming complex food webs.
Where does the pond and Lake food chain begin?
Phytoplankton In the life chain, that is, the lake and pond food chain, the beginning is phytoplankton. We could take this back a little further, and say that the pond food chain begins with the presence of phytoplankton, which is seemingly present everywhere, and awaiting water, fertility, and sunlight to become active.