Food Chains and Energy Flow

Food chains show how energy and nutrients move through an ecosystem. Each organism holds a trophic level, or a specific place in that chain. The lowest level includes primary producers, which make their own food using energy from the sun or from chemicals.

Organisms at the next levels are heterot...

Species within an ecosystem are organized into a food chain, a sequential order in which energy and nutrients are passed through different organisms. Each species in the chain represents a specific position known as a trophic level.

The lowest end consists of primary producers called autotrophs, organisms that obtain the energy to synthe...