primary consumers
Food Chains and Food Webs The term food chain is sometimes used metaphorically to describe human social situations. In this sense, food chains are thought of as a competition for survival, such as who eats whom? Someone eats and someone is eaten. Therefore, it is not surprising that in our competitive dog-eat-dog society, individuals who are considered successful are seen as being at the top of the food chain, consuming all others for their benefit, whereas the less successful are seen as being at the bottom. The scientific understanding of a food chain is more precise than in its everyday usage. In ecology, a food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass: primary producers, primary consumers, and higher-level consumers are used to describe ecosystem structure and dynamics. There is a single path through the chain. Each organism in a food chain occupies what is called a trophic level. Depending on their role as producers or consumers, species or groups of species can be assigned to various trophic levels. In many ecosystems, the bottom of the food chain consists of photosynthetic organisms plants and/or phytoplankton , which are called primary producers. The organisms that consume the primary producers are herbivores: the primary consumers. Secondary consumers are usually carnivores that eat the primary consumers. Tertiary consumers are carnivores that eat other carnivores. Higher-level consumers feed on the next lower tropic levels, and so on, up to the organisms at the top of the food chain: the apex consumers. In the Lake Ontario food chain shown in Figure 46.4, the Chinook salmon is the apex consumer at the top of this food chain.