Question

What will happen if deer is missing in the food chain given below:
$Grass \rightarrow Deer \rightarrow Tiger$
A) The population of tiger increase
B) The population of grass increase
C) Tiger will start eating grass
D) The population of tiger increase and the grass decrease

Answer 1

Food chain, in ecology, the sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to organism. The food chain is the pathway along which food is transferred from one trophic or feeding level to another.

Complete answer:
Energy, as food, moves from the producers to the herbivores to the carnivores. Just around 10% of the energy stored in any trophic level is converted to organic matter at the different trophic level. This implies that this event starts with 1,000g of plant matter, the food chain can uphold 100g of herbivores (primary consumers), 10g of secondary consumers, and just 1 g of tertiary consumers. Because of the loss of energy starting with one trophic level then onto the next, natural ways of life never have more than four or five trophic levels.

The natural way this food chain reveals to us that grass is the beginning stage. The grass is eaten up by deer and the deer is then eaten up by a tiger. In this food chain, grass is the producer which utilizes solar energy to prepare food like sugars by photosynthesis. This grass is then eaten up by a herbivore which is deer. And then, the deer is eaten up by a carnivore called lion.

The natural pecking order reveals to us that the exchange of energy happens from grass to deer and afterward to tiger. It can't happen in the reverse way from tiger to deer to grass. If deer is removed from this food chain, at that point the number of grass will increase since it won't be eaten by deer, and the number of tigers will decrease in light of the fact that they won't get their food which is deer and would eventually die.

Thus, the correct answer is option D, i.e. 'The number of inhabitants in tiger diminishes and the number of inhabitants in grass increments'.

Note: The study of food chains in an area or habitat helps us in knowing various interactions among the different organisms and also their interdependence. A food chain shows how the living beings are connected to one another by the food they eat. Each degree of an evolved way of life speaks to an alternate trophic.