Food chain

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Definition of Food chain:
Several definitions:
  1. A sequence of organisms within an ecosystem in which each is the food of the next member in the chain.[1].
  2. Hierarchical sequence of transfer of substances from prey organism to predator organism. Note: Interconnected food chains combine to form a food web in which most organisms consume or are consumed by more than one other type of organism.
  3. The transfer of energy from the source in plants through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten. Note: At each transfer, a large proportion of the potential energy is lost as heat. The shorter the food chain (or the nearest the organism is from the beginning of the food chain), the greater the available energy which can be converted in biomass.
This is the common definition for Food chain, other definitions can be discussed in the article

References

  1. Lawrence, E. (2005). Henderson’s dictionary of biology. Pearson Education Limited, 13th ed., Harlow. 748 p