Food Chain and Web - Class 3 Notes & Olympiad Questions

Food Chain

a) A food chain is like a line or a chain that shows how energy is passed from one living thing to another.

b) It starts with plants, which are called producers because they make their own food using sunlight. Herbivores then eat these plants. For example, a grasshopper eating a plant is part of a simple food chain.

c) There are also animals that eat other animals such as carnivores or predators. For example, a frog that eats the grasshopper is also part of the food chain. So, we have plants at the beginning of the chain, then herbivores, and finally, carnivores.

Food Web

a) In a natural ecosystem, there are many different food chains that are connected to each other. It forms a food web.

b) A food web is like a big network of interconnected food chains. It shows how all the different plants and animals in an ecosystem are connected through what they eat.

c) In a food web, you can see that some animals called omnivores may eat both plants and other animals, like us humans.

d) There are also some special creatures called decomposers. They help break down dead plants and animals, returning nutrients back to the soil. Examples of a few decomposers are earthworms, millipedes, bacteria, etc.

e) Food web is like a never-ending cycle of energy flow, with each organism playing a role in the survival of others.

So, food chains and food webs help us understand how all the plants and animals in an ecosystem are linked together through their feeding relationships. They show us how every living thing relies on other living things for energy and survival.