Food chains
Food chains show the feeding relationships between living things. A food chain always start with producers (green plants or algae) because they can make their own food. The food chain ends with decomposers which release nutrients back into the soil. Decomposers are not always shown in a simple food chain.
Plants are eaten by the rabbit, the rabbit is eaten by the jackal.
A food chain shows the energy flow from one organism to the next in the chain. The arrows in the food chain shows the direction of flow of energy. Energy is passed through an ecosystem along the food chain from producers to the consumers.
Food webs
There are many food chains in an ecosystem. Most of animals do not eat one kind of food. For an example the locust does not eat only leaves of the acacia tree, it also feeds on grasses and shrubs. A group of food chains connected together is called a food web. Food webs tells us about the different kinds of food that are eaten by different kinds of animals. They show how animals and plants in a community are linked.
