On earth, there are a great many plants and animals. All of them are forced to provide for their livelihoods by eating and processing vital energy. Thus, their interaction always unites creatures into food chains, along the links of which nutrients and energy pass from one to another.
Power circuits
In deciduous forests, these sequences, of course, have their own characteristics. But in general, absorption and interaction occurs according to general laws and rules that are characteristic of almost any habitat. After all, what is the food chain? By and large, this is a situation where nutrients and energy pass from one living organism to another in a consistent way. Links, as a rule, are formed from producers and consumers (various levels). The first in the chain feed on non-organic, extracting food for their life directly from the soil, air and water. For example, most plants use the phenomenon of photosynthesis. And bacteria that live in almost any environment feed on minerals and gases. Consumers continue the sequence. The first level - they feed on plant foods (producers) and are called herbivores (herbivores). The second, third, fourth levels of consumers eat animal food - these are carnivores, or predators.
A large predator closes the food chain, becoming the head of the food pyramid. Usually such representatives are not so many in a certain environment. A special role is given to nature by scavengers, microorganisms that process dead flesh, turning it into non-living matter. After all, if not for them, the whole earth would have been covered with the corpses of plants and animals!
Food chains in deciduous forests. Examples
After a few words about the theory, we turn to the practice of compilation. Any food chain for deciduous forests is provided with a rich species diversity of plants and animals living here. Rapid vegetation feeds such herbivorous mammals as small rodents, hares, deer, moose, roe deer. They mainly eat dense herbs in the meadow, bark and branches of trees and shrubs, berries, mushrooms, nuts. All these types of food can be found in abundance - animals will always have something to profit from, even in the cold winter. Predators also live here, serving as links of the food chain in deciduous forests. Their lifestyle is radically different from herbivores. Foxes and wolves, ermines and weasels, lynxes and martens, birds of prey. Basically, they prey on other animals. Smaller predators (amphibians, for example), which can also become the prey of large carnivores, are also characteristic of the inhabitants of the forest. Accordingly, food chains in broad-leaved forests are also forming. They are sometimes multilevel and intertwined with each other in the middle links.
Here are some of them:
- Birch bark - hare - fox.
- Tree (bark) - bark beetle - tit - hawk.
- Grass (seeds) - forest mouse - owl.
- Grass - an insect - a frog - already - a bird of prey.
- Insect - reptile - ferret - lynx.
- Leaves - earthworm - thrush.
- Fruits and seeds of trees - squirrel - owl.
- Leaves - caterpillar - bug - titmouse - falcon.
Energy conservation and loss
The creatures of the previous link in the broad-leaved forest serve as a food base for the next link. Thus, the transition of energy from one organism to another and the circulation of substances in nature. But at the same time, a huge part of this energy is lost (up to 90%). This is probably why the number of food chain links in broad-leaved forests, as a rule, is not more than five or six at the maximum.