Food Web
Simple Food Web
A food web is a method biologists use to show the patterns of eating that exist in an ecosystem. A simple food web is shown on the right. It is made up of several food chains. Simply put, a food chain is a single path showing organisms eating other organisms. For example, grass is eaten by a slug, which then gets eaten by a snake, and the snake gets eaten by a raccoon. The energy stored in the grass is transferred to the slug. The energy stored in the slug is passed on to the snake, and finally, the energy stored in the snake is passed on to the raccoon. So energy passes from one organism to another in this way. However, slugs, snakes, and raccoons eat lots of other things, too. If we map out all the different things each organism eats, and show all the connections among all the organisms, that would be a food web.