What is a Food Web?
Food chains show how energy is
passed from the Sun to producers,
consumers, and decomposers. In any
ecosystem many food chains overlap.
Different food chains may include some of
the same organisms. Several consumers
may eat all the same kind of plant or
animal for food. When this happens, the
food chains form a food web. A food web
shows how food chains are related within
an ecosystem.
Food webs in one community may be
connected to food webs in another
community. This makes the passage
of energy even more complex.
Using Graphic Sources
• What consumer is found in several food
chains? What food chains is it a part of?
• What might happen to this food web if the
hawk dies?
• Make a list describing all the paths energy
takes in the food web.
food web
• The pattern
that shows
how food
chains are
related.
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