Question

Which of the following statements about the food chain is false?
A. Detritus food chain begins with dead organic matter
B. Carnivores are secondary consumers
C. Primary consumers are herbivores
D. Earthworm in detritus food chain is a primary producer

Answer 1

A food chain can be explained as a linear network of links in a food web. This chain always starts from producer organisms which are the green plants and ends at top predator species and finally detritivores, or decomposer species. A food chain shows the relations between each organism by the food they eat.

Complete step by step answer: In an ecosystem, there are different types of organisms present. All life needs energy and living organisms produce energy themselves or get it from the food they hunt. Reproduction, growth, cell division, and metabolism are all processes that require energy. The organisms get energy from the food. All the organisms are not capable of producing food. The organisms which are not able to produce the food they depend on the plants or the other animals. In any ecosystem ,the plants are known as the producer as they manufacture complex food materials through inorganic materials through photosynthesis.
A food chain is a linear order of events in an ecosystem. In the chain, there one living organism eats another organism, and after that those organisms are eaten by another larger organism. A food chain is a flow of nutrients and energy that occurs from one organism to another at different trophic levels. Producers, consumers, and decomposers are the major three parts of a food chain.
There are two types of food chains observed and they are the detritus food chain and the grazing food chain. The grazing food chain begins with producers and it ends with decomposer.
Primary consumers generally eat the grass and green plants which are the producers in a food chain. Therefore, the primary consumers are herbivores.
Secondary consumers are taking primary consumers as their food and they are considered as carnivores.
The detritus food chain is a type of food chain that starts with dead organic matter. Grasshoppers, ants, beetles are detrivores that take the dead organic matter as their food. An earthworm is a decomposer in a food chain and it acts as a primary consumer in the detritus food chain as it feeds on the decaying matter and obtains energy from it. In any food chain, the plants are the primary producers as they can synthesise their own food through photosynthetic processes.
Therefore, the correct option is option D.

Note: The food chain is a linear sequence of the organisms found in an ecosystem regarding their food habit. Producers, consumers, and decomposers are the major three parts of a food chain. In the chain, consumers take producers as food and get fused by the decomposers. The detritus food chain is a type of food chain that starts with dead organic matter. The earthworm acts as the primary consumer in a detritus food chain and not the primary producers.