Question

State the difference between the first trophic levels of the detritus food chain and grazing food chain?

Answer 1

The living organisms in an ecosystem such as plants, animals, birds, insects, reptiles, and different species of mammals are all codependent on each other for food and energy. This flow of energy and nutrients from one living organism to another at different trophic levels is what forms the food chain. This various patterns or relation of feeding between different living organisms is explained by the food chain.

Complete answer:
There are different levels in a food chain at which the transfer of energy from one organism to another takes is known as the trophic level of the food chain and it is composed of producers at the bottom-most and then followed by the primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers respectively. The food chain is generally divided into two i.e., grazing food chain and detritus food chain.

Detritus food chain: Detritivores or decomposers are the organisms that feed on the dead organic matter or detritus. The food chain that starts with dead organic materials that are being decomposed by microorganisms is called the Detritus food chain.

Grazing food chain: The lowest trophic level in a food chain in which the energy is acquired through photosynthesis is called the Grazing food chain. In this kind of food chain, the lowest level contains producers like green plants, who produce their food through the process of photosynthesis and then the higher levels are made up of herbivores and carnivores.

So the general differences between these two kinds of food chains are as follows:
• The first trophic level in a grazing food chain is served by the producers as they serve the primary source of energy. Whereas in the detritus food chain the dead and decaying matter serves as the basic source of energy.
• In a grazing food chain, the energy is directly provided by the sunlight, but in the detritus food chain it’s provided by the organic debris.
• One of the most visible differences between these two food chains is that the grazing food chain is much larger compared to the detritus food chain.
•The other difference between these two food chains is that the grazing food chain releases the energy it produces to the ecosystem, whereas the detritus food chain utilizes the energy from the ecosystem.
• Grazing food chain generally helps in adding the energy, and the detritus food chain fixes the inorganic nutrients.

Note: The grazing food chain can further be classified into two, they are
• Predator chain in which generally the sequence of organisms is increasing in size.
• The parasitic chain in which the sequence of organisms is generally decreasing in size.