Question

A diagram that maps the intersecting and overlapping predator and prey relationships for an ecosystem is called a:

a) Food chain

b) Food Web

Answer 1

Food chain refers to the sequence in which organisms are oranized in the series who eats whom or in other words we can say, it is the linear sequence that indicates the food relationships and energy transfer between different biotic components of ecosystem. e.g. Grass -----------> Deer -------------> Tiger

Here Grass is eaten by Deer and Deer is a Prey fro Tiger.

However in an ecosystem, simple food chains do not exist instead a network of interconnecting food chains that intesect and overlap at many points exist and that network is called food web.

As in the question intersecting and overlapping predator - prey relationships are asked, it is an example of food web