Unit Test — Unit test

Question 2 • TX-Biology B-CR

What is the difference between food chains and food webs?

Answer

Food webs show the flow of energy from producers to consumers, and food chains show the flow of energy from consumers to producers.

Food chains show a single path of energy in an ecosystem, and food webs show overlapping pathways of energy in that ecosystem.

About ten percent of the energy is passed on to the next trophic level in food webs, but in food chains, about ninety percent is passed on to the next trophic level.

Heat is lost when energy is passed on to the next trophic level in food chains, but in food webs, heat is not lost when energy is passed on to the next trophic level.

Explanation

A food chain represents one path along which energy moves through an ecosystem, such as from a plant to an herbivore and then to a predator. A food web connects many food chains to show the overlapping energy pathways among organisms. Therefore, choice B is correct; both chains and webs show energy moving through ecosystems, not in opposite directions.

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