Chain of food in the forest. General concepts and examples

Most living organisms feed on organic food, this is the specificity of their life activity on our planet. Among this food and plants, and the meat of other animals, their products of activity and dead matter, ready for decay. The very process of feeding in different species of plants and animals occurs in different ways, but so-called food chains are always formed . They transform matter and energy, and nutrients can thus move from one being to another, carrying out a cycle of substances in nature.

Chain of food in the forest

Forests of various kinds are covered quite a lot of land surface. These are the lungs and the instrument of purification of our planet. It's not for nothing that many progressive modern scientists and activists are now against massive deforestation. The chain of food in the forest can be quite diverse, but, as a rule, includes no more than 3-5 links. In order to understand the essence of the question, let us turn to the possible components of this chain.

Producers and consumers

1. The first are autotrophic organisms that feed on inorganic food. They take energy and matter to create their own bodies, using gases and salts from their environment. As an example - green plants that are powered by sunlight through photosynthesis. Or the numerous types of microorganisms that live everywhere: in the air, in the soil, in the water. Producers make up the majority of the first link of almost any food chain in the forest (examples will be given below).
2. The latter are heterotrophic organisms that feed on organic matter. Among them - the first order those that directly carry out food at the expense of plants and bacteria, producers. The second order - those who eat animal food (carnivores or carnivores).

Plants

With them, as a rule, the chain of food in the forest begins. They are the first link in this cycle. Trees and shrubs, herbs and mosses extract food from inorganic substances, using sunlight, gases and minerals. The chain of food in the forest, for example, can begin with a birch, the bark of which the rabbit eats, and it, in turn, kills and eats the wolf.

Herbivorous animals

In a variety of forests in abundance there are animals that feed on plant food. Of course, the tropical forest, for example, is very different in its filling from the middle belt. In the jungle, various species of animals live, many of which are herbivorous, and therefore constitute the second link of the food chain, feeding on plant food. From elephants and rhinoceroses to hardly noticeable insects, from amphibians and birds to mammals. So, in Brazil, for example, there are more than 700 species of butterflies, almost all of them are herbivorous.

Scantier, of course, is the fauna in the forest belt of the middle part of Russia. Accordingly, the supply chain options in the mixed forest are much smaller. Proteins and rabbits, other rodents, deer and moose, hares - this is the basis for such chains.

Predators or carnivores

They are called, because they eat flesh, feeding on meat of other animals. In the food chain occupy a dominant position, often being the final link. In our forests, these are foxes and wolves, owls and eagles, sometimes bears (but in general they belong to omnivores, which can eat both plant and animal food). In the food chain can participate as one, and several predators, eating each other. The closing link, as a rule, is the largest and most powerful carnivore. In the middle forest, this role can be performed, for example, by a wolf. Such predators are not too numerous, and their population is limited to a nutritional base and energy reserves. Since, according to the law of conservation of energy, the transition of nutrients from one link to the next may lose up to 90% of the resource. Perhaps, therefore, the number of links in most food chains can not exceed five.

Scavengers

They feed on the remains of other organisms. Strangely enough, they are also quite numerous in nature: from microorganisms and insects to birds and mammals. Many beetles, for example, use corpses of other insects and even vertebrates as food. And bacteria can decompose the dead bodies of mammals in a fairly short time. The scavenger organisms play a huge role in nature. They destroy matter, transforming it into inorganic substances, releasing energy, using it for their vital functions. If it were not scavengers, then probably the whole earthly space would be covered by the bodies of animals and plants that died for all times.

Examples of food chains in the forest

To make a chain of food in the forest, you need to know about those inmates who live there. And also about what these animals can eat.

1. Birch bark - insect larvae - small birds - birds of prey.
2. Foliage leaves are bacteria.
3. Caterpillar butterfly - mouse - snake - hedgehog - fox.
4. The acorn is the mouse - the fox.
5. Cereal - mouse - eagle owl.

There are also more authentic: fallen leaves - bacteria - worms rain - mice - mole - hedgehog - fox - wolf. But, as a rule, the number of links is not more than five. The food chain in the spruce forest is slightly different from those in the deciduous forest.

1. Seeds of cereals - a sparrow - a wild cat.
2. Flowers (nectar) - a butterfly - a frog - really.
3. A fir-cone is a woodpecker - an eagle.

Food chains can sometimes weave together, forming even more complex, multi-level structures, combining into a single forest ecosystem. For example, a fox does not disdain to eat both insects and their larvae and mammals, so several food chains intersect.