Food web

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/food-web

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the ecological role?Illustrates feeding pathways and energy transfer within an ecosystem
2. What is the key concept?Trophic levels classify organisms based on their feeding position
3. Why do food webs have many paths instead of just one chain?Food webs have many paths so that if one food source goes missing, animals can still find other foods, keeping the whole community stable.
4. How does energy move from plants to big animals in a food web?Energy starts in plants that use sunlight, then moves to herbivores that eat the plants, then to carnivores that eat the herbivores, and so on, but only about 10% of the energy is passed on at each step.

Trophic Dynamics: The study of energy flow and the relationships between different feeding levels in an ecosystem.
Mixotroph: An organism that can obtain energy from both photosynthesis and by consuming other organisms.
Network Theory: A mathematical approach used to analyze the structure and properties of complex interconnected systems like food webs.