Food chains, Food webs & Pyramids (Edexcel IGCSE Biology)

Revision Note

Lára Marie McIvor

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Food Chains

  • Food chains are diagrams that show the energy flow between organisms in an ecosystem

    • The arrows in a food chain represent the transfer of energy between trophic levels

  • All food chains start with producers; this is because they convert energy into a form that can be used by other organisms, e.g. plants convert light energy into chemical energy

A food chain starting with grass, then showing a grasshopper, a frog, a snake and an eagle a

Food chains show the transfer of energy that occurs when organisms feed

Food Webs

  • Food webs are networks of interconnected food chains

  • Food webs can aid in the understanding of the complexity of feeding relationships in ecosystems

Food web, IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

Food web shows the complex feeding relationships within ecosystems

  • A change in one population within a food web can affect other populations, e.g. for the food web above a decrease in the rabbit population might lead to:

    • an increase in grass growth, due to decreased feeding

    • a decrease in the fox population, due to reduced food availability

    • an increase in caterpillars and earthworms, due to increased growth of grass

    • a decrease in the frog and mouse populations, as foxes would need to compensate for the reduction in rabbits

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Questions about interdependence in food webs are common, so be sure that you know how to follow chains of events through each food chain within a food web.

When describing events in a food web it is a good idea to avoid stating that an animal or plant population would ‘die out’, as this is unlikely to happen; you should instead state to increases or decreases in population size.

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Food Pyramids

Pyramids of numbers

  • Pyramids of numbers show how many organisms are present at each trophic level of a food chain

    • The size of each bar indicates the number of organisms present

  • A food chain containing three organisms can be represented in a pyramid of numbers with three bars:

grass → vole → owl

A pyramid of numbers showing many grass plants, a smaller number of voles, and a single owl

The bars in a pyramid of numbers indicate the number of organisms present at each trophic level

  • In some food chains many small organisms may feed on few large organisms; in this case a pyramid of numbers will not be pyramid shaped

  • E.g. for the food chain:

oak tree → ladybird → woodpecker

A pyramid of numbers with the smallest bar on the bottom representing an oak tree, the largest bar representing ladybirds, and another small bar representing woodpeckers

Pyramids of numbers are not always pyramid-shaped

Pyramids of biomass

  • Pyramids of biomass show the mass of living organisms present at each level of a food chain

    • Biomass = mass of living matter

  • Pyramids of biomass are always pyramid-shaped; this is because the available biomass always decreases at higher trophic levels of a food chain

  • E.g. for the same food chain shown above:

oak tree → ladybird → woodpecker

pyramid-of-biomass-labelled

The bars in a pyramid of biomass represent the mass of living matter at each trophic level of a food chain, and are always pyramid shaped

Pyramids of energy

  • Pyramids of energy illustrate the stored energy within the biomass at each trophic level

  • As with pyramids of biomass, pyramids of energy are always pyramid-shaped

  • E.g. for the food chain:

grass → snail → frog → wolf

Pyramid of Energy, downloadable IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

Pyramids of energy show the stored energy at each trophic level of a food chain; they are always pyramid shaped

Drawing food pyramids

  • When drawing any type of food pyramid, there are several conventions that should be followed:

    • the trophic levels of the organisms must stay in the same order as in the food chain, with producers at the bottom, followed by primary consumers, then secondary consumers, then tertiary consumers etc.

    • each bar must be labelled to indicate the trophic level

    • the length/width of a bar reflects the unit represented by the pyramid; a longer/wider bar indicates:

      • more organisms

      • greater biomass

      • more stored energy

    • bars should be the same height

    • if graph paper is provided then bars should be drawn to scale

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Remember that pyramids of biomass and energy are always pyramid-shaped, but pyramids of number can be any shape, depending on the size of the organisms involved.

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Lára Marie McIvor

Author: Lára Marie McIvor

Expertise: Biology Lead

Lára graduated from Oxford University in Biological Sciences and has now been a science tutor working in the UK for several years. Lára has a particular interest in the area of infectious disease and epidemiology, and enjoys creating original educational materials that develop confidence and facilitate learning.