4.4 Trophic levels

1. Trophic-to feed
2. A carrot plant photsynthesizes.
3. A carrot fly eats the carrot plant therefore the carrotfly is a herbivore.
4. Fly catcher eats the carrotfly which makes it a carnivore.
5. Sparrow eats a flycatcher which makes it a TOP carnivore.
6. However, ecologically, different names exist for these feeding levels.
7. The carrot plant could be called the producers, plants produce their own food through photosynthesis.
8. the carrotfly would be called a 'primary' consumer. Takes the chemical energy from the plant and turns it into its own chemical enrgy.
9. The flycatcher would be called a 'secondary' consumer which changes the chemical energy from one form to another.
10. The sparrow hawk would be known as the tertiary consumer. They eat the secondary consumers and turn the molecules of the secondary consumers into useful molecules of their own.
11. Decomposers, such as fungi, break down all these animals after they die. They break down the molecules from these organisms into nitrates and phosphates.